Dave Sinardet

Between Al-Jazeera and CNN: Indicators of media use by Belgian ethnic minority youth

Abstract Media use by ethnic minorities is increasingly becoming a politicized matter, appearing regularly in discussions on multiculturalism and integration. In a globalizing media-landscape, the rise of ethnic and global ethnic media paradoxically enables ethnic minorities to maintain links with forms of ethnic identity. Especially interesting in this respect is media use by adolescents, often on the crossroads between different cultures. This article departs from the notion concerned with the extent to which media use of adolescents from ethnic minorities actually differs from that of their Belgian counterparts, and instead focuses on the role ethnicity plays as a determinant of media use when weighed up against other socio-economic or education-related variables. Based on a large-scale Belgian survey of 12- to 18-year-olds, this article shows, amongst other results, that the importance of ethnic-cultural background as an indicator for media use by adolescents from ethnic minorities ought to be placed into perspective.

Beyond linguistic and party homogeneity: Determinants of Belgian MPs’ preferences on federalism and state reform

Political parties are often thought of as unitary actors that have consistent preferences. This ‘hidden assumption’ means that heterogeneity within parties, and therefore intra-party dynamics, are overlooked in explaining attitudes. When it comes to devolution and federalisation, parties or MPs belonging to the same region are also often implicitly considered to have homogeneous viewpoints and attitudes. Relying on an original survey of MPs carried out during the Belgian political gridlock of 2010–2011, this article uncovers some of the key dimensions of the intra-party dynamics through analysis of MPs’ preferences towards institutional reform in Belgium. Far from being explained along party or community lines, our results demonstrate how MPs’ political and sociological background, national/regional identity, political career, and inter-community relations strongly shape their preferences.

The feminine side to Santa Claus. Women's work of kinship in contemporary gift-giving relations

Abstract The predominant male-breadwinner model having been surpassed by other forms of household organization, discussion rises on whether the female role of caretaker within households also undergoes change. The question certainly becomes relevant concerning an often less visible and/or overlooked aspect of the caretaker role, which is the ‘work of kinship’. This article looks at a specific aspect of this, which can be considered as even more invisible than other caring tasks: the responsibility for gift exchange. More precisely, we explore womens role in, contribution to and attitude towards the gift-giving process on three domains: the buying, giving and receiving of gifts. Results point to important gender differences: women remain chief responsible for gift selection and gift giving and invest more time in selecting the appropriate gifts for kin. They also show greater satisfaction with the gift-giving process, of which they tend to stress the symbolic value instead of the instrumental value, which is more strongly emphasized by men. This shows that traditional role models endure in an important but often invisible aspect of the work of kinship and more generally of the caretaker role and that these role models also seem to be strongly culturally integrated by men and women.

Book Review: Transnational Television Worldwide: Towards a New Media Order

universe of interesting and important concerns. Wooffitt states that discourse analysis ‘studies what people do in language’ (p. 115; emphasis in original) but at least as many of us are also interested in examining how language does the person. A similar point can be made in relation to discursive psychology – where CA has had a particularly heavy influence. Derek Edwards and Jonathan Potter may well have drawn analysts’ attention towards looking at how people deploy psychological terms in the course of mundane conversation, but this does not extinguish the force of a whole series of more ‘traditional’ questions about the constitution and location of thoughts and feelings. Wooffitt might believe that parapsychologists can save their beleaguered careers by turning their hands to producing CA treatments of people’s fanciful tales (see p. 107), but I think that few would agree. Maybe they could earn a crust, but in skipping the most obvious of issues (i.e. whether or not things like telepathy and telekinesis exist), they would no longer be doing so as parapsychologists. De facto, they would have left the fold. No. Conversation analysis fully deserves a place on the board of research methodologies, but it is in no position to mount a takeover bid.