Amsterdam Social Science

Download complete fourth issue (Volume 1, 2009)

Download the complete fourth issue of Amsterdam Social Science

Major Minority Media Challenges

The African Bulletin in the Netherlands

Chetna Mahadik, Paul Koitie, Aliaksei Miadzvetski and Daniel Nielsen

This paper profiles the bilingual monthly newspaper The African Bulletin, which is produced in The Netherlands and distributed within the country and in Spain. It targets the immigrant African community living in these countries. The paper tries to explore the objectives, with which the minority publication is produced, and some of the inherent tensions between these objectives on the one hand, and the norms and standards expected of journalism on the other. It also tries to study the unique services provided by the minority media to its audience, not just in terms of information, but also in building a discourse within the community about its identity, rights, and issues that affect them, and in trying to present the perspective of the immigrant African community on life in The Netherlands, to the Dutch mainstream.

Masculinity, Poverty and Violence in Argentina

Analysing children's discourse

Alejandra Martinez and Aldo Merlino

This article discusses part of the results of a research project with the objective to analyse the ways boys and girls, aged 8 to 9, living in the city of Córdoba, Argentina, and belonging to different socioeconomic groups, build a discourse around gender norms. It explains how children reproduce, in their discourses, schemes considered as "traditional" concerning gender definitions. Specifically, it shows the way working class boys and girls stress men's body relevance and men's ability to exert physical violence in order to accomplish masculinity definition and social recognition.

The role of Autism in the Sexual Development of Adolescents

Sanne Wortel

As humans, we all have sexual rights. The sexuality of mentally handicapped people must stop being ignored, as it has been in the past. Adolescents with Autism or Asperger's Syndrome go through the same physical changes and have the same questions about sex as mentally able youth. Although they are at a disadvantage due to their social detachment, their sexuality cannot be ignored; rather, it needs to be explained. This article focuses on the approach and importance of sexual education for these individuals. The sexual education must be tailored to fit the abilities of the person with Autism; however, it must cover the same material as sexual education for those without the disorder.

Multicultural Schizophrenia

"You Are Different, You Are Chinese"

Yiu Fai Chow

In the Netherlands, public discourses on the "multicultural drama" omit the Chinese. While other ethnic minorities are increasingly requested to integrate, the Chinese are perceived to be exemplary precisely because they remain Chinese. The implicit comment put forward to other minorities seems to be: how Dutch are you? And to the Dutch-Chinese: how Chinese! Informed by my own experience, this essay begins with an outline of the multicultural schizophrenia inherent in current discussions in the Netherlands on ethnic minorities and integration, in general, and the model minority discourse framing the Chinese, in particular. Against this context, I will zoom in onto the Chinese experience. How are the Dutch-Chinese responding to this multicultural schizophrenia wrapped up as compliment? How do they negotiate with the homogenising force of the model minority myth? What do they think of the multicultural society that includes them as a different category of migrants but excludes them from its public discussions? Drawing on an exploratory study of five young Dutch-Chinese, this essay deliberates on their intricate relationships with the model minority myth, the integration paradigm and the multiple demands political and popular discourses are imposing onto them. While generally subscribing to the myth, they use at least three strategies to negotiate with the "success story" without fundamentally questioning the category itself: it is not entirely good, not entirely true or not entirely relevant.

The Ideological Indiscretions of Toilet Paper

The pervasiveness of toilet paper is habitual, customary in Western society and its geographical ‘outposts' elsewhere, yet this also partakes in a masking practice - namely, toilet paper is the commodification of defecation. Its usage is in fact a status positionality that needs to be bought via the privilege of access to sanitary infrastructure. Marx and Weber can be vested for the analysis of this pervasive but over-looked phenomenon in terms of class and status groups in a global context.

Alienation & Academia

Jedidjah de Vries

Academics often fail to appreciate the ethical import of their work. Marx's theory of alienation offers a lens through which to understand how researchers come to be distanced from the ethical implications of their work.