Welcome to Volume 2 Number 2 of the Journal of International and Global Studies. We continue to increase our subscriptions to this open access online interdisciplinary journal. If you would like to subscribe to the journal, just click on the tab at the top of the page below the journal title. We will be sure to send you the web link to the journal so that you can read and download the essays in accordance with your interests.

We are pleased to have another group of excellent essays for this issue of the journal. Our lead essay in this issue is by anthropologist John Thornburg who has been investigating the issue of common property, the common good, and the impact of neoliberalist development policies on the island of St. Lucia. Of course, these classical issues go beyond the specific case study that he presents and Thornburg’s argument has consequences for development policies in many different regions of the world. Thornburg calls for a new morally-oriented economic developments in this region and elsewhere. This is a vital global issue that needs more attention in international and domestic political arenas. The second essay by Rebecca McCarthy is another global philosophical issue debated within many disciplines. McCarthy draws on the work of Kenneth Burke, Bakhtin, and other theorists to propose a new form of cosmopolitanism that extends beyond misguided forms of universalism, excessive nationalism, and globally-based economic neoliberalism. She interrogates the philosophical texts from ancient Greece and Rome to Kant and more contemporary sources such as Martha Nussbaum to carve out a new foundational global program for enhancing a cosmopolitical democratic project. This is a “thinking” piece for all scholars who work in a global arena, whether in diplomatic areas or other international education, cultural exchange, or political or economic development disciplines.

The third essay by Finnish scholar Simo Mikkonen is an investigative piece that delves into the recent history of the former Soviet Union immigration policies and the attempts to reintegrate former émigrés in Soviet occupied areas back into the USSR. Following a discussion of the different waves of Soviet emigration, Mikkonen draws on the historical sources from Russian and other country archival materials that refer to how the USSR government used international mass communications to recruit these emigrants back. It is an interesting account that reveals the inner workings of the Cold War policies regarding these Soviet émigrés and the competition between the U.S. and USSR in these different regions. The fourth essay by Norwegian sociologist Marie Aure also deals with Russian emigrants, those in Norway. She has been investigating the increasing “feminization of immigration” as Russian immigrants are targeted by employers within the Norwegian fishing industry and are recruited based on gender, age, motherhood, and other “feminine” characteristics. She analyzes the push and pull factors within Russia as well as the subjective processes of decision making of the women who take these employment opportunities. Again, this specific case study in the essay by Aure relates to many circumstances regarding the global employment of women in low wage industrial occupations around the world.

The fifth essay by anthropologist Sam Pack on the Navajo people of the Southwest United States and their rejection of mainstream American television has a larger global theme involving the resistance of indigenous peoples to the domination of the majority communities in their respective regions. Referring back to McLuhan’s arguments regarding the mass media, Pack illustrates how indigenous peoples are engaged in constructing their local specific identities in relationship to the international mass media that tends to promote new forms of cultural imperialism. Drawing on Lila Abu-Lughod’s methodological call for “ethnographies of the particular,” Pack demonstrates the process of identity construction of the Navajo as they relate to American television. He shows how a particular Navajo family “talks back” and resists the majority culture in America. This process is easily recognized by many anthropologists and scholars working among indigenous peoples in different areas of the world.

Along with the essays, just as in our previous issues, we have a number of book reviews of significant works that have been produced in various fields. The book reviews as well as the essays are intended to attract those scholars who have an interest in interdisciplinary research and in globalization and its consequences throughout the world. Again, as we stated in our first issue of the journal, we intend to maintain this standard of generalized interdisciplinary readability for all of our essays and book reviews in future issues of our journal. We hope that you will subscribe to our journal to read future essays. We also invite you to submit essays and suggest possible book reviews for the journal.

Sincerely,

Raymond Scupin, Ph.D. Director: Center for International and Global Studies Professor of Anthropology and International Studies Lindenwood University