Coventry Anti–Poverty Project

Coventry Anti-Poverty

There will be a meeting next week for all of those students who expressed an interest in working on this research project with me.
The meeting will be on Monday afternoon at 2pm on the second level of the Learning Grid at University House. Please confirm if you are coming.

: 20 Oct 2004 11:46 |  Tags: Crime And Deviance |  Comments (8) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Article by Hazel Smith

Writing about web page http://www2.gol.com/users/coynerhm/brownback_bill_will_not_solve_no.htm

I was sorting out my literature files and found this again. I forgot I had it but it seems very relevant right now.
It's Hazel Smith's views on why NKHRA 2004 will not work and she gives very practical reasons why.
Be sure to have a look!

: 13 Oct 2004 09:26 |  Tags: North Korean Refugees |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

In the Korean News

Writing about web page http://64.4.46.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=44cbc717006561d64f76a22d9d502d06&lat=1097057940&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fenglish%2edonga%2ecom%2fsrv%2fservice%2ephp3%3fbicode%3d060000%26biid%3d2004100622368

I was going over how I would describe the NGO network for NKEs and checking the news for updates. Yesterday, the US House of Reps. passed the North Korean Human Rights Act 2004 (NKHRA 2004).
There have been virtually no official talks between NK and SK since the NKEs from Vietnam and it's not likely that NK will talk to anyone until after the November elections in the US. Smart move for them, I would say. It looks almost like the Bush administration is trying to brew up another war to make it though Nov.

I think the Act and US moves deserve brief mention in our paper. This and the SK reaction. SK government says that it will continue to renew diplomatic relations with NK while doing it's best to enforce the NKHRA. Either they are trying to be VERY clever or are stupid enough to let everyone know that they have no clue what to do.

This also got me thinking about the interests of the stakeholder states. It's in absolutely no ones interest for the NKEs to move anywhere. NK and China's appauling human rights record does however allow the US to put up a moral argument in their antagonism towards the two countries. In effect, it's in no one's interest, political or otherwise, to actually help these people? Am I seeing things that aren't there?

: 06 Oct 2004 11:40 |  Tags: North Korean Refugees |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Crossing the bar

At last I am blogging. It seems like I have been talking about blogs all summer. The Sociology Department is piloting the blogging process, as a teaching and learning event, for the University. I have been talking to colleagues, explaining the merits of the system. Now I am at last using it myself.

Yesterday (28th Oct), I presented the concept of blogging to my Crime and Deviance students, with the help of Kay Sanderson. I want to use it extensively this year as part of my teaching practice. Exactly, how it is going to work I am not sure, but I have lots of ideas. I hope the students can suggest ways in which we can make it work. I have already asked them to review a crime novel or write a short crime story and put it on their blogs. This exercise is a sort of gentle introduction into the issues involved with the Sociology of Crime and Deviance.

While they are writing their stories and reviews I want them to consider the motivation of the criminal in the story, the social context within which the story is taking place and the role of the institutions of power ( e.g., police, courts, prisons…etc) in the process.

The system by which the students put their reviews/stories into their blogs is not yet up and running, but I hoping that it will be ready by Thursday (30th Oct), so that everything will be in place for the seminars next week.

: 29 Sep 2004 11:08 |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem