bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Comparing Homeless and Domiciled Patients’ Utilization of the Harris County, Texas Public Hospital System
Authors: Buck David S. , Brown Carlie A. , Mortensen Karoline , Riggs John W. , Franzini Luisa
Published: November 2012

Homeless individuals have mortality rates three to six times higher than their housed counterparts and have elevated rates of mental illness, substance abuse, and co-morbidities that increase their need for health services. Data on the utilization of Harris County, Texas’ public hospital system by 331 homeless individuals and a random sample of 17,824 domiciled patients were obtained from June 2008 to July 2009. Homeless individuals had increased readmission rates, especially within 30 days of discharge, resulting in significantly higher total annual length of stay. Homeless patients also more frequently utilize public hospitals for mental illness and HIV. Lack of community health services contributes to an increased dependence and preventable over-utilization of public hospital systems. Case management interventions integrating primary and behavioral care into health homes, medical respite programs, and training for health care professionals who provide indigent care will improve health outcomes of this population and reduce costs.
Perceptions of Predisposing, Enabling, and Reinforcing Factors Influencing the Use of a Continuity of Care Document in Special Needs PLWH
Authors: Odlum Michelle , Gordon Peter , Camhi Eli , Schnall Rebecca , Teixeira Paul , Bakken Suzanne
Published: November 2012

The provision of personal health information through electronic personal health management tools (EPHMT) has the potential to improve health outcomes. However, little is known about factors that affect EPHMT use in special needs people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH). The purpose of this study was to describe PLWH perceptions of predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors affecting use of one type of EPHMT, a continuity of care document (CCD). Data were collected through focus groups and qualitative interviews with PLWH (n=35), health care providers (N=19) and care site managers (N=5). All participant types identified predisposing barriers to CCD use including literacy, privacy, and technology access and enabling factors to promote CCD use including user support and password simplicity. People living with HIV/AIDS also identified reinforcing factors for recurring CCD use including emergent situations and reducing test redundancy. Results inform methods to promote use of the CCD and other EPHMT by special needs PLWH.
Tuskegee Redux: Evolution of Legal Mandates for Human Experimentation
Authors: Levine Robert S. , Williams Jamila C. , Kilbourne Barbara A. , Juarez Paul D.
Published: November 2012

Human health experiments systematically expose people to conditions beyond the boundaries of medical evidence. Such experiments have included legal-medical collaboration, exemplified in the U.S. by the Public Health Service (PHS) Syphilis Study (Tuskegee). That medical experiment was legal, conforming to segregationist protocols and specific legislative authorization which excluded a selected group of African Americans from any medical protection from syphilis. Subsequent corrective action outlawed unethical medical experiments but did not address other forms of collaboration, including PHS submission to laws which may have placed African American women at increased risk from AIDS and breast cancer. Today, anti-lobbying law makes it a felony for PHS workers to openly challenge legally anointed suspension of medical evidence. African Americans and other vulnerable populations may thereby face excess risks—not only from cancer, but also from motor vehicle crashes, firearm assault, end stage renal disease, and other problems—with PHS workers as silent partners.
Building a Person-Centered Medical Home: Lessons from a Program for People with Developmental Disabilities
Authors: Weedon Dean , Carbone Paul , Bilder Deborah , O’Brien Stephanie , Dorius Josette
Published: November 2012

The HOME Program provides medical and behavioral health care for people with developmental disabilities across the lifespan. Its unique funding structure provides a fiscally viable, and replicable, means of supporting case management in a medical home setting, addressing system-level barriers that typically impede the implementation of the patient-centered medical home.
Medicaid Transformed : Why ACA Opponents Should Keep Expanded Medicaid
Authors: Brandon William P.
Published: November 2012

The next potential disaster facing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the November 2012 elections: Its opponents, who promise to “repeal and replace,” may gain sufficient control of the federal government in 2013 to carry out their pledge. This commentary aims to promote understanding of the fundamental transformation that the ACA makes in Medicaid and to urge ACA opponents desiring some health reform after repeal to let the ACA’s Medicaid provisions stand. After an introduction to the ACA and its vulnerabilities the commentary examines the evolution of Medicaid since its 1965 origins as a means-tested concomitant of cash welfare. It shows that Medicaid has been very adaptable as it morphed into a complex categorical program for specific populations or types of care. The ACA transforms Medicaid into a universal means-tested entitlement for anyone below 138 percent FPL. The conclusion explains why ACA opponents should retain its Medicaid provisions.
U.S. Drug Use and Migration Experiences of Mexican Female Sex Workers who are Injection Drug Users
Authors: Ojeda Victoria D. , Burgos José Luis , Rangel María Gudelia , Lozada Remedios , Vera Alicia
Published: November 2012

Objective . To describe U.S.-based drug/sex behaviors and correlates of lifetime U.S. drug use by Mexican female sex workers who inject drugs (FSW-IDUs). Methods . Between 2008–2010, 315 migrant FSW-IDUs residing in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico responded to questionnaires. Results . Twenty-seven percent (n=85) of FSW-IDUs were U.S. migrants; of these, 46% (n=39) were deportees. One-half of U.S.-migrant FSW-IDUs consumed illicit drugs in the U.S., and two-thirds of these injected drugs in the U.S. Among U.S. injectors, over 75% ever received or shared used injection equipment. The majority (92%) of U.S.-migrant FSW-IDUs never obtained U.S. drug treatment services. HIV prevalence was 4% among U.S.-migrant and 5% among non-U.S. migrant FSW-IDUs; 100% of U.S.-migrant and 75% of non-U.S. migrant FSW-IDUs were unaware of their HIV status. Conclusions . Binational coordination to improve access to substance use treatment and HIV testing services in Mexico and the U.S. among marginalized binational migrants may be critical to containing HIV transmission.
Individual Breast Cancer Risk Assessment in Underserved Populations: Integrating Empirical Bioethics and Health Disparities Research
Authors: Anderson Emily E. , Hoskins Kent
Published: November 2012

Research suggests that individual breast cancer risk assessment may improve adherence to recommended screening and prevention guidelines, thereby decreasing morbidity and mortality. Further research on the use of risk assessment models in underserved minority populations is critical to informing national public health efforts to eliminate breast cancer disparities. However, implementing individual breast cancer risk assessment in underserved patient populations raises particular ethical issues that require further examination. After reviewing these issues, we will discuss how empirical bioethics research can be integrated with health disparities research to inform the translation of research findings. Our in-progress National Cancer Institute (NCI) funded study, How Do Underserved Minority Women Think About Breast Cancer? , conducted in the context of a larger study on individual breast cancer risk assessment, is presented as a model.
Pilot Study of Impact of Medical-Legal Partnership Services on Patients’ Perceived Stress and Wellbeing
Authors: Ryan Anne M. , Kutob Randa M. , Suther Emily , Hansen Mark , Sandel Megan
Published: November 2012

Medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) bring legal services into health care settings to address patients’ unmet legal needs. This pilot project examined whether MLP services impact patients’ perceptions of stress and wellbeing.
Methods . Providers referred patients with legal concerns to the Tucson Family Advocacy Program (TFAP), an MLP within a family medicine clinic. Stress levels and wellbeing were assessed before and after legal services using self-administered 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and Measure Yourself Concerns and Wellbeing (MYCaW) instruments.
Results . Sixty-seven participants completed pre- and post-service questionnaires. Within this group, the mean PSS-10 score decreased 8.1 points. Wellbeing scores improved by 1.8 points. Individual changes in perceived stress were strongly related to participants’ level of concern regarding the particular legal issues addressed.
Conclusions . Services in patient-centered medical homes to address unmet legal needs have the potential to reduce perceived stress and improve overall wellbeing. Additional studies concerning MLPs and patient outcomes are needed.
Consumer Choice over Living Environment, Case Management, and Mental Health Treatment in Supported Housing and Its Relation to Outcomes
Authors: Tsai Jack , Rosenheck Robert A.
Published: November 2012

Choice and empowerment is commonly discussed as important for mental health consumers. Greater specificity is needed in identifying domains of consumer choice related to outcomes in supported housing. Using data from 534 chronically homeless adults participating in a supported housing initiative, mixed model regressions were used to test the predictive association between three factor-analytically derived domains of consumer choice (choice over living environment, case management, and mental health treatment) and housing and mental health outcomes. Controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, homeless history, and incarceration history, domains of consumer choice assessed at three months were not predictive of housing outcomes at six or 12 months. However, choice over living environment at three months was weakly predictive of psychological well-being and subjective quality of life at six and 12 months. Policy and clinical efforts to enhance consumer choice over housing and living options deserve support, although the magnitude of beneficial effects may be small.
Effects of Race/Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status on Health Information-Seeking, Confidence, and Trust
Authors: Richardson Amanda , Allen Jane Appleyard , Xiao Haijun , Vallone Donna
Published: November 2012

Introduction . It is critical continually to monitor the influence of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status in health information-seeking, confidence, and trust to ensure that health messages reach those most in need. Methods . Using data from the 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), multivariable logistic regression assessed the effects of race/ethnicity, education, and income on health information-seeking, confidence in obtaining health information, and trust of information sources. Results . Respondents of lower education were less likely to seek health information, and along with those of lower incomes had decreased confidence in their ability to obtain health information. Blacks, Hispanics, and those of lower income endorsed a lower level of trust in doctors and other health care professionals than non-Hispanic Whites and those of higher income, respectively. Conclusions . Improving the development and delivery of health information intended for minority and vulnerable populations may help reduce existing disparities in health information-seeking and care.
Access to Breast Cancer Screening Programs for Women with Disabilities
Authors: Proulx Renée , Mercier Céline , Lemétayer Fanny , Jutras Sylvie , Major Diane
Published: November 2012

Background . The goal of this study was to identify measures to facilitate access to the Quebec Breast Cancer Screening Program for women with activity limitations, considering the barriers to screening uptake in that population. Methods . The study was carried out in three stages. First, 124 semi-structured interviews were conducted in five regions of Quebec with five groups of key informants. The content analysis lead to the identification of 64 proposals, which were submitted to 31 experts through a two-round Delphi survey process. Finally, consultations were held with 11 resource people to determine which decision-making levels (local, regional, provincial) could play a key role in implementing the proposals. Results . A strong consensus (≥80%) was achieved for 25 proposals seen as highly relevant and feasible. Discussion . The implementation of such proposals could substantially improve access to screening, given the prevalence of activity limitations in the age group targeted by the program.
Tough Times, Tough Choices: The Impact of the Rising Medical Costs on the U.S. Latino Electorate’s Health Care–Seeking Behaviors
Authors: Medeiros Jillian A. , Sanchez Gabriel R. , Valdez R. Burciaga
Published: November 2012

Utilizing a survey of Latino registered voters conducted in Spring 2009, we focus our attention on the impact of the rapidly rising costs of health care on the health-seeking behavior of Latino registered voters, and the impact of high medical costs on their economic status. We find that a third of Latinos used up all or most of their savings and a quarter of Latinos skipped a recommended test or treatment due to high medical costs, rates that are particularly high given that our sample is of Latino registered voters. Furthermore having health insurance is not statistically related to preventing economic hardship due to medical costs for Latinos. Our results suggest that the expansion of insurance coverage alone will not insulate the Latino community from being faced with economic difficulties unless the reform policy directly addresses individual costs of care.
Behavioral Risk Factors and Latino Body Mass Index: A Cross-Sectional Study in Missouri
Authors: Sandoval J.S. Onésimo , Harris Jenine K. , Jennings Joel P. , Hinyard Leslie , Banks Gina
Published: November 2012

Obesity is the fastest-growing cause of disease and death in the United States, with minority populations suffering some of the most severe consequences. Latinos constitute 16% of the U.S. population as of 2010, and have a higher proportion of the population that is overweight and obese compared with their non-Hispanic Black and White counterparts. Although there are over 15.8 million Latino residents living in non-gateway states (outside California, Texas, Arizona, Illinois, and New York), there is little research exploring obesity factors among Latinos outside of gateway states. The aim of this paper was to study socio-economic characteristics, mental health, insurance status, physical activity, and fruit and vegetable consumption, in relation to body mass index (BMI) among Latinos living in a non-gateway state. The results showed that income, employment status, marital status, insurance status, physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, and mental health were all associated with BMI.
HPV, Oropharyngeal Cancer, and the Role of the Dentist: A Professional Ethical Approach
Authors: Northridge Mary E. , Manji Naila , Piamonte Romney T. , More Frederick G. , Katz Ralph V.
Published: November 2012

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is an emerging risk factor for oropharyngeal cancer, especially among younger patients, and must be thoughtfully addressed by the dental community. The professional ethical decision-making model first advanced by Ozar and Sokol for use by dentists at chairside (define the dilemma, assess the facts, identify and rank the alternatives, and choose a course of action) was modified to delineate clearly inputs, considerations, and feedback loops based on what is professionally and ethically at stake in advising patients. As the link between HPV and oropharyngeal cancer is established through scientific studies, the role of the dentist in primary and secondary prevention will be crucial. In the absence of definitive evidence, the professional ethical decision-making framework presented here allows dentists to systematically work through available alternatives. Ultimately, the role of the dentist is to use discretion in choosing a professional and ethical course of action for each patient.
Hepatitis B Prevention and Care for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders at Community Health Centers
Authors: Caballero Jeffrey B. , Martin Melinda , Weir Rosy Chang , Agbayani Nina , Soon Natalie Ah , Chen Katherine
Published: November 2012

Introduction. A needs assessment was conducted of hepatitis B education, screening, vaccination, and care within community health centers (CHCs) serving Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Methods . Written surveys were administered to health education directors from 13 CHCs and 75 medical providers from 14 CHCs in the U.S. and affiliated Pacific Islands. Results . Although hepatitis B is within the mission of CHCs and clients are screened regardless of insurance status, little financial or staffing resources are dedicated to hepatitis B services. Lack of funding is considered the greatest barrier. Better coordination between HBV prevention and primary and specialty medical services is needed. Discussion . HBV cross-training for providers and allied staff, particularly around identification and screening of high risk groups and case management, would greatly enhance services along with additional funding. Findings support national hepatitis B strategy recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine and Office of Minority Health.
Exploring Transitions Within a Project-based Housing First Setting: Qualitative Evaluation and Practice Implications
Authors: Collins Susan E. , Clifasefi Seema L. , Andrasik Michele P. , Dana Elizabeth A. , Stahl Natalie , Kirouac Megan , Welbaum Callista , King Margaret , Malone Daniel K.
Published: November 2012

The Housing First (HF) approach is a model of housing that entails the provision of immediate, permanent, low-barrier, supportive housing to chronically homeless individuals either in separate apartments within a larger community (known as scattered-site HF ) or in a single building (known as project-based HF ). One recent innovation is the application of project-based HF with chronically homeless individuals with alcohol problems. Although initial studies have shown its effectiveness, there is currently no research on residents’ and staff ’s experiences living and working in a project-based HF program. The purpose of this article was to document these experiences and highlight strengths and challenges of project-based HF programs. Using data collected from naturalistic observations, agency documentation, one-on-one resident interviews, and a staff focus group, we delineated transitional periods, including moving into project-based HF, community-building, managing day-to-day, and transitions from project-based HF. Findings are interpreted to help health care policymakers and providers envision the role of project-based HF in comprehensive public health efforts and to integrate lessons learned into their own clinical practice.
Health Care Avoidance among People with Serious Psychological Distress: Analyses of 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey
Authors: Ye Jiali , Shim Ruth , Rust George
Published: November 2012

Using data of 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey, we investigated the association between individuals’ psychological distress and their reported avoidance of medical care and assessed whether people with serious psychological distress (SPD) were more likely to report psychosocial barriers to care. After controlling for demographic and health characteristics, individuals with SPD were more likely than those without SPD to report having avoided visiting a doctor even when they suspected they should (OR=1.64, 95% CI=1.08–2.48). The distressed individuals were also more likely to agree that they avoided a doctor because of fear of having a serious illness (OR=1.99, 95% CI=1.15–3.44) or thinking about dying (OR=2.15, 95% CI=1.12–4.11). Further understanding of the mechanism under which an individuals’ mental health status may influence their perceived need for health and their use of medical services would improve the interface between mental health and primary care services.
Applying Systems Engineering to Implement an Evidence-based Intervention at a Community Health Center
Authors: Tu Shin-Ping , Feng Sherry , Storch Richard , Yip Mei-Po , Sohng HeeYon , Fu Mingang , Chun Alan
Published: November 2012

Impressive results in patient care and cost reduction have increased the demand for systems-engineering methodologies in large health care systems. This Report from the Field describes the feasibility of applying systems-engineering techniques at a community health center currently lacking the dedicated expertise and resources to perform these activities.
Sociocultural Determinants of Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Adherence: An Examination of Variation among Immigrant Latinas by Country of Origin
Authors: Shelton Rachel C. , Jandorf Lina , Thelemaque Linda , King Sheba , Erwin Deborah O.
Published: November 2012

This paper seeks to examine differences in sociodemographic characteristics and culturally-relevant psychosocial and interpersonal factors across four sub-groups of immigrant Latinas, and how these factors are associated with adherence to age-specific breast and cervical cancer screening. Data come from a baseline survey using an electronic audience response system from a randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of a cancer screening program in New York and Arkansas (n=1,548). Mexican women were least likely to be adherent to cancer screening tests (clinical breast exam, mammogram, or Pap test). Mexican women also differed from the other sub-groups in terms of sociodemographics, barriers, and interactions within the health care system. Correlates of screening adherence differed by country of origin, with the exception of spouse/partner attendance at the program, which was negatively associated with adherence across several sub-groups. Findings provide important information about Latina sub-group variability that can help inform the development of breast and cervical cancer screening interventions.
Ethics of Clear Health Communication: Applying the CLEAN Look Approach to Communicate Biobanking Information for Cancer Research
Authors: Koskan Alexis , Arevalo Mariana , Gwede Clement K. , Quinn Gwendolyn P. , Noel-Thomas Shalewa A. , Luque John S. , Wells Kristen J. , Meade Cathy D.
Published: November 2012

Cancer innovations, such as biobanking technologies, are continuously evolving to improve our understanding and knowledge about cancer prevention and treatment modalities. However, the public receives little communication about biobanking and is often unaware about this innovation until asked to donate biospecimens. It is the researchers’ ethical duty to provide clear communications about biobanking and biospecimen research. Such information allows the public to understand biobanking processes and facilitates informed decision making about biospecimen donation. The aims of this paper are 1) to examine the importance of clear communication as an ethical imperative when conveying information about cancer innovations and 2) to illustrate the use of an organizing framework, the CLEAN (

C

ulture,

L

iteracy,

E

ducation,

A

ssessment, and

N

etworking) Look approach for creating educational priming materials about the topic of biobanking.
Does Continuity of Care Have an Effect on Diabetes Quality Measures in a Teaching Practice in an Urban Underserved Community?
Authors: Younge Richard , Jani Beena , Rosenthal David , Lin Susan X.
Published: November 2012

Teaching clinics are an important source of care for urban, minority, underserved communities and face great challenges to improve quality of care for diabetics. This study examined the impact of continuity with the same primary care provider on health care process and outcome measures for patients with diabetes treated at an urban, family medicine resident teaching practice. The Modified Modified Continuity of Care Index was used to measure care continuity. The diabetes care quality measures were based on the NCQA HEDIS and Diabetes Recognition Program. Low levels of care continuity were associated with poor HbA1c control and higher levels of care continuity were associated with good LDL control. These findings suggest that improving care continuity should be considered in a systems-based approach to address disparities in diabetes care. Additional research is needed to include the patient’s perspective in measuring care continuity and patient outcomes.
Cancer Prevention in the 21st Century: The Preventorium Concept
Authors: Huerta Elmer E.
Published: November 2012

The Cancer Preventorium model described here has proven successful in targeting the Hispanic population of a large metropolitan area in the United States to change the point of contact within the health care system from patients with advanced conditions seeking treatment to those screened while presumably healthy to detect disease early.
Uninsurance and its Correlates among Poor Adults with Disabilities
Authors: Burns Marguerite E. , O’Hara Brett J. , Huskamp Haiden A. , Soumerai Stephen B.
Published: November 2012

States must offer Medicaid coverage to low-income adults with disabilities; however, they have discretion in the design of eligibility criteria and enrollment processes. Using the American Community Survey, we examined the health insurance status of adults enrolled in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability program including (1) the national rate of health insurance coverage; (2) state rates of uninsurance and Medicaid; and (3) the correlates of uninsurance. Uninsurance and Medicaid rates varied across states from 1% to 12% and from 63% to 91%, respectively. Nationally, 5% of the SSI population was uninsured; 77% was enrolled in Medicaid. Limited English proficiency, Black race, lack of U.S. citizenship, and residence in a state that used an enrollment process and/or eligibility criteria distinct from the SSI program were associated with uninsurance. As states streamline Medicaid enrollment processes to meet requirements of the Affordable Care Act, they should consider the needs of this vulnerable population.
Preface: When Rights Were Social
Authors: Mazurek Małgorzata , Betts Paul
Published: November 2012

The editors of the social rights issue explain the aims and central themes of the articles.
Social Rights in the Soviet Dictatorship: The Constitutional Right to Welfare from Stalin to Brezhnev
Authors: Smith Mark B.
Published: November 2012

The Soviet constitutions of 1936 and 1977 defined a wide range of social rights. Yet the Soviet Union was a dictatorship, and even in the 1970s internal and external critics alike denied the existence of any form of rights there. This article seeks to explain how and why constitutional rights to welfare became an important element in Soviet public culture from 1936, but in the reality of citizens' everyday lives only from 1953. It draws precise distinctions between the meaning of social rights in the dictatorships of the Stalinist and post-Stalinist eras.
Afterword: Social Rights and Human Rights in the Time of Decolonization
Authors: Cooper Frederick
Published: November 2012

The concluding article of this collection places the question of social and human rights in the context of the acute uncertainty about world politics in the years after World War II. Not least of the questions was the unit in which rights could be claimed: nation-state, empire, humanity as a whole. That issue was particularly open in the years after 1945 because of struggles over colonialism. Could the expanding notion of social rights in postwar England and France be confined to the metropole, especially as colonial powers needed to redefine their basis of legitimacy and as social and political movements in Africa were asserting political voice? Political movements in the colonies were not necessarily focused on independence, but on the right to claim rights—social as well as political—in an imperial polity. The locus of rights, as well as their contents, have remained in question ever since.
Curbing Labour's Totalitarian Temptation: European Human Rights Law and British Postwar Politics
Authors: Duranti Marco
Published: November 2012

This article highlights the pivotal role that British Conservatives played in championing and framing European human rights law in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. It argues that this postwar moment of Conservative enthusiasm for international human rights institutions was a response to the momentary anxieties of a party in political opposition, some of whose members genuinely feared what they decried as the "totalitarian" powers of the British Labour government. The omission of economic and social rights from the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) reflected the hostility of leading Conservative politicians such as Winston Churchill and David Maxwell Fyfe towards Labour's economic and social policies.
International Aid and Development NGOs in Britain and Human Rights since 1945
Authors: Hilton Matthew
Published: November 2012

UK international aid and development organisations such as Oxfam, Save the Children and Christian Aid have become some of the most prominent NGOs in the world. Born out of the humanitarian response to crisis, they have subsequently become significant players in the global debate about long-term development. From advocating an alternative path to development in the 1960s and 1970s they have come to articulate a rights-based approach in the 1990s. For NGOs, this was a logical consequence of "scaling up" their activities. However, as this article demonstrates, it was the result of more complex processes which have gradually brought these ever larger organisations into the development mainstream.
"No Real Freedom for the Natives": The Men in the Middle and Critiques of Colonial Labor in Central Mozambique
Authors: Allina Eric
Published: November 2012

This article examines how administrators in Mozambique engaged in the international debate over labor practices in colonial Africa. Although they worked within a regime of legalized forced labor, some expressed ambivalence over their position, criticizing both the principle and the practice of forced labor. These "men in the middle" held mindsets shaped both by awareness of the broader debate over what forms of labor were acceptable in "modern" empires and by interactions with the Africans over whom they ruled. The article tracks the evolving debate around African labor rights from the 1920s to the 1940s, following discussions within the League of Nations, between Portuguese government departments, and across levels of administrative hierarchy within Mozambique.
The Forced Labor Issue between Human and Social Rights, 1947-1957
Authors: Kott Sandrine
Published: November 2012

This article considers the question of forced labor in the framework of human and social rights, as unfolding in the early Cold War period. A precise analysis of the discussion surrounding the convention on the abolition of forced labor within the International Labour Organization (ILO) between 1947 and 1957 forms a basis for my observations. The conflict between the two blocs, like the decolonization process, demarcated a favorable period for defining the juncture between human and social rights. The alliance between officials from southern and communist countries could have a catalyzing effect. Having had the intent of denouncing the Soviet labor camps at its inception, the convention in its final form reintroduced social rights as a condition of freedom of labor.
Socialism, Social Rights, and Human Rights: The Case of East Germany
Authors: Betts Paul
Published: November 2012

Over the course of the Cold War and beyond, Western commentators tirelessly criticized the Soviet Union and its satellite states for ignoring and/or violating human rights in their national territories, despite lip service paid to these cherished ideals. This article seeks to shift the focus by exploring how human rights were discussed and understood in the East Bloc from the mid-1960s on, using the German Democratic Republic as a case study. Particular emphasis is placed on the ways in which socialist theorists—initially hostile to Western human rights talk—eventually found a way of accommodating human rights with socialist ideals. It is, I would argue, the materialization of social rights (as opposed to the abstract civil rights of the West) that largely distinguished the socialist understanding of rights in East Germany, dovetailing as they did with broader notions of national sovereignty and socialist civilization.
The Conscience of the Skin: Interwar Polish Autobiography and Social Rights
Authors: Lebow Katherine
Published: November 2012

Between the World Wars, Polish sociologists gathered thousands of autobiographies by workers, peasants, and other "ordinary" people. The resulting body of "social memoir" can be read as an argument about social rights: authors simultaneously drew on Enlightenment ideas of subjecthood to press for enfranchisement and portrayed the limits of liberal citizenship, insisting on the embodied experience of poverty. While World War II heightened the urgency of life-writing in Poland (e.g. as testimony), however, postwar personal narratives came to be embedded in new, transnational rights discourses, through which they lost traction as arguments about specifically social rights.
Some Rights Are More Equal than Others: The Third World and the Transformation of Economic and Social Rights
Authors: Burke Roland
Published: November 2012

This article argues for the decisive influence of the Third World on the development of economic and social rights in the postwar human rights program. For states confronting extreme poverty and underdevelopment, the urgency of securing these rights was a constant refrain. Yet the challenge of delivering them in the context of immense resource constraints soon led to significant departures from the accepted formulation of the 1948 Universal Declaration, which held all rights in an organic unity. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Third World campaign would compromise their very character as "rights" wielded by the individual, transforming them instead into inter-state claims far removed from the citizen.
Eyeing Idols: Rabbinic Viewing Practices in Late Antiquity
Authors: Neis Rachel
Published: November 2012

This article introduces a new perspective, the history of vision, into the study of rabbinic literature. Specifically it examines how the rabbinic visual regime dealt with those objects and images that it designated as idols. It argues that rabbis took seeing seriously and that they developed a set of strategies to shape the viewing of problematic visual objects such as idols. These ranged from gaze aversion to looking askance. However, even the refusal to look at idols needs to be understood in light of late antique understandings of intromissive, extramissive and tactile vision, and more narrowly, in terms of the reciprocal dynamics of sacred viewing.
Mediating Jewish Knowledge: Menasseh ben Israel and the Christian Respublica litteraria
Authors: Rauschenbach Sina
Published: November 2012

Cooperation between Christian and Jewish scholars was common in the world of Early Modern Christian Hebraica. Ever since Christians decided to study the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the Kabbala and the commentaries and treaties of the Medieval Jewish philosophers there were rabbis to teach them or to help them edit the Hebrew books they needed. Still, outside of grammars, only a few rabbis went as far as authoring books for Christian audiences. Menasseh ben Israel (1604–1657), the famous Amsterdam rabbi known above all for his negotiations with Oliver Cromwell and the London parliament about the renaturalization of the Jews to England, was one of the first systematically to publish Latin books for a Christian audience and to “translate” Judaism into Christian contexts. In my essay I explain how Menasseh proceeded, how he merged Jewish knowledge into the knowledge of the Christian Respublica litteraria, and how he finally interconnected his scholarly and his political activities. Of special interest is Menasseh’s idea of an Abramite theology, a common subset of shared Jewish and Christian teachings which could be used as something like a “third space” in intercultural translation processes. Finally, I discuss some aspects of the failure of Menasseh’s project, reflected in the ambivalent reactions of the Christian world, and reconsidered with regard to the conditions early modern cultural mediators generally had to meet, but which Menasseh didn’t.
The Allure of Forbidden Knowledge: The Temptation of Sabbatean Literature for Mainstream Rabbis in the Frankist Moment, 1756–1761
Authors: Kahana Maoz
Published: November 2012

This paper investigates the eighteenth century phenomenon of the wide spread and use of Sabbaetean literature by “main stream” Jewish rabbis. For what reason did participants in the Jewish rabbinic elite posses and use copies of heretical manuscripts, while integrating them in their literally projects as well as their personal daily practice? Moreover, how did the tempestuous controversy over Jacob Frank and his believers at the middle of the eighteen century affect this status of Sabbatean texts in the rabbinic library?

In this essay I will examine a particular aspect of this literary opacity from the viewpoint of two Torah scholars. By dating and revisiting lost manuscripts and short fragments, along with well-known polemics, this paper will attempt to uncover the basic attitudes of R. Ezekiel Landau of Prague and R. Pinhas Katzenellenbogen of Boskowitz toward Kabbalistic and Sabbatean literature. Several personal writings dating from 1752 to 1761 will be closely examined with the aim of tracing two opposing, yet prototypical responses to the place occupied by Sabbatean literature on the Kabbalistic-Lurianic shelf of the contemporary rabbinic library.
Nana, Prostitution and the Textual Foundations of Zola's Au Bonheur des Dames
Authors: Wilson Steven
Published: November 2012

This article considers the textual forces operating in Au Bonheur des Dames , Zola's 1883 novel on modern commerce. It proposes that, with its echoes of the disorderly impulses that governed the infamous prostitute Nana earlier in the Rougon-Macquart cycle, coupled with its appreciation of the benefits of regulation, the dynamics of controlled and contained prostitution constitute the energy which fuels an efficient and successful business model in Au Bonheur des Dames . By closely analyzing both texts as well as Zola's preparatory documents, and borrowing from Genette's theories of intertextuality, this study reads Nana as a pre-historic hypotext, buried in the textual chantier from which the structure of Au Bonheur des Dames emerges.
Une fissure dans l'édifice colonial: inquiétante étrangeté ou agentivité féminine?Le cas de quatre nouvelles de Maupassant
Authors: Calargé Carla
Published: November 2012

This article looks at four short stories published by Guy de Maupassant after his first trip to Algeria: "Allouma," "Marroca," "Mohammed-fripouille," and "Un soir." Through an analysis of the representations made of the stories' female characters I argue that those representations conform entirely to the (discursive) model established by colonial literature of the subaltern-woman as seen through the gaze of the White male. Nonetheless, a close reading of the texts reveals that sometimes the illusion of control shatters in such a way that the attentive reader can perceive a different story which, if told, can shake the very foundations of hegemony.
Ex-dono Charles Nodier. Les pérégrinations d'une bibliothèque de voyage en Écosse
Authors: Vacelet Sébastien
Published: November 2012

This study accurately runs through all the editions and translations of Ossian's poems and Scott's "Lady of the Lake" consulted by Nodier in order to prepare his travel to Scotland. We have identified the very copy of Chapman's guidebook used by Nodier on this trip. Thanks to this guidebook, Nodier modifies his travel plans and reorganizes the story of his expedition in the form of new quest for the Holy Grail: the Highlands and Ben Lomond become the subject of this quest. An unpublished letter of Nodier to Pr Hooker can be found as attached document.
Joris-Karl Huysmans, A Dénicheur of Jules Chéret's Posters
Authors: Carter Karen L.
Published: November 2012

This article analyzes Joris-Karl Huysmans's essay on French poster designer Jules Chéret (1836-1932) as an early example of art criticism devoted to mass-produced advertising posters. Huysmans's "Chéret" essay, published in the collection of art criticism, Certains (1889), interpreted late nineteenth-century poster imagery as capturing the sexual allure of the female figures represented. In doing so, Huysmans, a dénicheur —or cultivator of unconventional interpretations of popular culture—wedded decadent themes of the comic and sexuality in order to challenge bourgeois morality and capitalist forms of culture.
Un enlèvement peut en cacher un autre: Kidnapping the Past in La Duchesse de Langeais
Authors: Gerwin Elisabeth
Published: November 2012

In La Duchesse de Langeais (1834), Balzac indicts the Restoration aristocracy for its egotistical disregard for the recent past. However, his criticism of the desire to repress history's lessons extends far beyond one political moment. This article explores how personal and political evolution remain indissociable, for Balzac, in reappraising the significance of past acts and present values. When Armand de Montriveau kidnaps the aristocratic Duchess, the intended result of his violent act is to make her conscious of her narcissism; yet Montriveau himself remains unconsciously amnesiac concerning his own complex past. Finally, it is the coquettish Duchess who understands the symbolism of his gesture and of her position; but without reciprocal insight, history is destined to remain a dead letter.
Workers and Wives as Legible Types in Eugène Sue's Les Mystères de Paris
Authors: Erbeznik Elizabeth
Published: November 2012

Eugène Sue's Les Mystères de Paris (1842-43) guides readers through the lower-class and criminal sectors of Paris using the conventions of character typology popularized by the urban guides and tableaux of the 1830s and 40s. While these texts, exemplified by the physiologies , maintained that social distinctions could be made visible and could thus be "read" by the knowing observer, Sue demonstrates the extent to which deceit and disguise complicate this system of legibility. Working women—such as grisettes —were particularly constrained by the perception of them as types and, in a city where characters could adopt new identities as they inhabited new spaces, these women found themselves unable to move beyond their limited roles. Transforming workers into wives so that they might transcend their status as types, I argue that Sue ultimately carves out a safe (if circumscribed) space for women in the city.
Reading/Developing Images: Baudelaire, Benjamin, and the Advent of Photography
Authors: Grøtta Marit
Published: November 2012

This article reassesses Charles Baudelaire's stance toward photography and investigates how the subject of photography is treated by him poetically. Reading the prose poems "Les Fenêtres" and "Mademoiselle Bistouri," it argues that Baudelaire was highly concerned with the question of reading images and discusses the importance of captions in the age of technological reproducibility, with reference to Walter Benjamin's essay on photography. The article further discusses Benjamin's method. Investigating his use of photographic imagery, it shows that the question of reading images in Benjamin's writings is laid out both in terms of photography and in terms of allegory.
Ren as a Communal Property in the Analects
Authors: McLeod Alexus
Published: November 2012

This essay presents an interpretation of ren 仁 in the Analects that takes it to be a moral property primarily of communities, one that individuals can possess derivatively. Other interpretations of ren, li 禮, and moral agency in the Analects fail to account for the centrality of community in an adequate way, making it peripheral to the main theory, and thus struggling to make sense of the concentration on community in sections of the Analects such as book 4, and key passages such as Analects 4.1, 4.7, and 4.25, in which Confucius discusses the connection of ren to the particular community in which one lives, the groups one is a member of, and one's neighbors, respectively. First, a conception is outlined of shared communal disposition that helps us to understand ren in the Analects . Then, a textual argument centered in book 4 of the Analects is presented that ren is best understood as a communal property. Finally, an explanation is offered of communal disposition in general, and of how ren as a communal property is connected to the relevant communal dispositions.
Fingarette on Moral Agency in the Analects
Authors: Reilly Richard
Published: November 2012

Despite the seminal status of Herbert Fingarette's collection of essays, Confucius: The Secular as Sacred , certain lines of criticism have persisted for four decades. The aim of this essay is to rescue Fingarette's analyses from several recurring misconceptions. Attending to Fingarette's methods of analysis and to the light shed by subsequent publications, the following claims are advanced regarding Fingarette's understanding of the Lun yü . (1) Fingarette does not give it a "behaviorist" interpretation. (2) While it does not utilize psychological metaphors or doctrines, it nevertheless affirms that persons have a psychic life and exercise moral agency. (3) Indeed, a "moral self" underlies an authentic (egoless) "bearer of roles." (4) It reveals how "magical power" is at the heart of human virtue embedded in li , but this does not mean either that persons exercise causal power from a distance or that such magical power lacks philosophical significance. (5) Li is epistemologically necessary for what can be interpersonally understood as intelligently appropriate conduct, as references to "performatives" and "forms of life" make clear. (6) Human beings are primarily performers rather than composers of li ; nevertheless, right conduct manifests how individuals uniquely cultivate themselves and attain sacred dignity.
Indian Emergencies: Baranī's Fatāwā-i Jahāndārī , the Diseases of the Body Politic, and Machiavelli's accidenti
Authors: Syros Vasileios
Published: November 2012

This essay proposes a novel interpretation of the Fatāwā-i Jahāndārī (Precepts of world rulership), one of the major sources of Indo-Islamic political thought produced by Ziyā' al-Dīn Baranī, a seminal Indo-Islamic political theorist and historian (fourteenth century). It shows that one of the main thrusts of Baranī's theory is to offer a comprehensive account of the various kinds and manifestations of emergencies and modes of treating the diseases afflicting the body politic. It also investigates the ways in which Baranī's ideas on emergencies relate to the political circumstances that prevailed during the Delhi Sultanate period as well as to previous works of political and moral advice, particularly Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī's Nasirean Ethics . In addition, this essay is the first systematic endeavor to place Barani in conversation with Western political writers, especially Niccolò Machiavelli. It explores the affinities between these two authors' views on emergencies and, more broadly, on the challenges associated with rulership and the qualities requisite for an efficient ruler. My analysis of Baranī's ideas within the context of the Islamic tradition and the cross-cultural comparison with Machiavelli highlights the normative dimensions of his theory and its relevance to current debates on emergencies.