Search

Based on the keynote address the author gave at the ISCHE conference in Turkey in June 2015, this article examines how female identities, in a predominantly non-white colonial setting, were variously constructed over a 145-year time period. The paper also sees some resonance with the power structures that drive female oppression in former non-white colonial domains today and begins with that discussion. The author then turns to develop a largely historical perspective concerning this issue and is interested in the changes in the interaction between females living in India and the colonial state over this extended time period. In so doing, the article illustrates the activism of females who were caught within the imperial ambit as they responded, with varying degrees of intensity, to the broader racial and class agendas, which were internal to British colonial rule. The article uses the paradigm of “femininity” to trace the self-actualisation of these females, as well as the official impositions placed on them; and how, even from this position of powerlessness, coercive agendas could still emerge as a result of their activism that the state, itself, was then forced to accommodate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although Turkey is no stranger to protest events, there has been only limited research into why some people participate in protests, such as demonstrations and boycotts, while others do not. Using the 2008 European Values Study data, this paper investigates how socio-economic and demographic variables, political attitudes and orientations, social capital and religiosity explain variations in the likelihood of engaging in unconventional political activity in Turkey. Comparing results for Turkey with results for the European Union (EU), the present study finds that traditional explanations of participation in unconventional forms of political action in stable democracies do not seem to explain participation in Turkey. Education, institutional trust, democratic satisfaction and religious beliefs are the only factors that shape non-traditional participation in Turkey. Socio-economic and demographic characteristics, political attitudes and orientations, social capital and religious beliefs explain most of the variation in unconventional activism in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the 1990s, efforts were launched in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in the Russian Federation to support the revival of Sakha (Yakut) language education. This interdisciplinary study examines the evolution of school-based Sakha language education in the city of Yakutsk over a 25-year period beginning with the launching of the first reforms in the 1990s. Language education reform in the capital city has been shaped by a dynamic interplay between federal, regional, and local factors. Grassroots social and cultural activism continues to play a key role in school-based language revitalization in Yakutsk, influencing how policies have been received and implemented at the local level. Local community stakeholders are working together to counteract federal education policies, which direct school resources away from minority language education. This case study shows that the Sakha (Yakut) language revival has taken root in the capital city, and it provides important evidence that civic activism continues to develop in urban areas of the republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]