bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Narratives of the Night: The Use of Audio Diaries in Researching Sleep
Authors: Hislop Jenny , Arber Sara , Meadows Rob , Venn Sue
Published: March 2010

This article draws on data from two major empirical studies of sleep to examine the use of audio diaries as an approach to researching sleep. Sleep has only recently emerged as a topic of interest to the sociologist, providing a valuable resource through which to examine the roles and relationships and gender inequalities which underpin everyday life. Yet accessing individual experiences of sleep is problematic. Considered a non-conscious activity, sleep takes place in most cases at night within the private domain of the home and is thus generally inaccessible to the social researcher and outside the conscious reality of the sleeper. In exploring the social aspects of sleep, we rely primarily on respondents’ interpretations of the sleep period given retrospectively in focus groups and in-depth interviews, distanced from the temporal, spatial and relational dimensions of the sleep event. This article also focuses on the use of audio diaries as a method designed to help bridge the gap between events in real time and retrospective accounts. We examine the narrative structure of audio diaries, discuss the principles and practice of using audio diaries in sleep research, illustrate the contribution of audio diary narratives to an understanding of the social context of sleep, and assess the use of audio diaries in social research. We conclude that, used in conjunction with other methods, audio diaries are an effective method of data collection, particularly for understanding experiences of intimate aspects of everyday life.
Content, Context, Reflexivity and the Qualitative Research Encounter: Telling Stories in the Virtual Realm
Authors: Illingworth Nicola
Published: March 2010

The arrival of the virtual realm and computer-mediated communication (CMC) has attracted considerable interest within the discipline. However, the full potential of computer-mediated conversation as both a research resource and medium of communication within the qualitative research encounter awaits further exploration. In this paper, I discuss the dimensions of the qualitative ‘tradition’, the recent burgeoning interest in biographical methods shaping the research agenda and the significance of the virtual realm as a locus of communication. In so doing, I draw from my recent research exploring 15 women's accounts of their experiences of infertility and assisted reproductive procedures. Often, the qualitative encounter becomes a shared medium of trust, reciprocity and revelation. This research highlights the importance of not just making ‘space’ for participants voices and words but of acknowledging the significance of the context of communication itself – paying attention to ‘where’ and ‘how’ we speak is as critical as paying attention to what might be said. Participants within this study used and translated virtual text and virtual participation into a sense-making vehicle. In this respect, the virtual space offers a new dimension to the qualitative research encounter and we need to remain aware of the opportunities this affords.
‘Refuse of All Classes’? Social Indicators and Social Deprivation
Authors: Geoff Payne , Judy Payne , Mark Hyde
Published: March 2010

The development and electronic accessibility of indices of poverty and social deprivation have yet to be fully exploited by mainstream sociology, not least in the field of class analysis where it might seem likely to be taken up. While reasons for this can be suggested, there are several conceptual frameworks within sociological debates about class that might accommodate deprivation and its indicators, and also valuable empirical resources in the form of indices which are now available to researchers interested in contemporary social inequality.

The potential of this approach in the UK is demonstrated by an examination of patterns of social deprivation in 1991 Census data for 391 wards in the South West of England, using the Townsend, Jarman, Breadline Britain and the new DoE Local Conditions indices. Urban and rural patterns are demonstrated in inter-pair correlations between index scores, component variable values, and social class represented as SEGs. A factor analysis similarly shows distinct patterns for urban areas, small towns and rural areas. However, in all cases class, single-parent families, and children living in low- income households show the strongest associations with other deprivation indicators.

An explanation for the empirical findings may be found in two main strands of class analysis. First, following Weber, deprivation and occupational class both derive from market situations, but the reported deprivation patterns cannot be entirely explained in terms of class: other factors (such as life-cycle) need to be included. Second, while there is no clear evidence of residualization in the data, some aspects of consumption sector theory seem to be born out; for example, differential opportunities for access to consumption. In addition, it is suggested that the rural/urban differences raise issues for ameliorative policies, further demonstrating the potential for a closer integration of the social indicators approach into the techniques of sociological analysis.
‘Evaluating an Empowering Research Strategy: Reflections on Action-Research with South Asian Women’
Authors: Bowes Alison
Published: March 2010

Anti-racist sociology, feminist sociology and action-research share a concern with empowerment of ‘the researched’. A review and critique of the concept of empowerment in anti racist, feminist and action research is used to argue for the use of Strauss's ‘paradigm’ for study of the negotiation of power in the research process. Power negotiations are discussed in relation to a reflexive case study of an action- research project which worked alongside South Asian women in Glasgow. The case focuses on the project set up, which was aimed at intrinsic empowerment, then on the community action which tried to respond to local concerns, and finally on the experiences of two researchers in the project. In conclusion, it is argued that empowerment, rather than an unquestioned, universally desirable goal, remains an issue for continuing debate.
The Use of Marriage Data to Measure the Social Order in Nineteenth-Century Britain
Authors: Prandy K. , Bottero W.
Published: March 2010

This article describes the construction of a measure of the social order in the nineteenth century, which will subsequently be used as a basis for studying processes of social reproduction (or social mobility). The technique of correspondence analysis is used to map the ordering of groups of occupations in two time periods 1777-1866 and 1867-1913. The data are derived from the occupations at marriage of the groom, his father and his father-in-law (the occupations of brides, unfortunately, being very much under-recorded). Marriage, it is argued, is a socially significant act linking, on average, families that occupy similar positions in the social order and analyses of the patterns of social interaction involved provide a means of determining the nature of the social space within which similarity is defined. The three occupations provide three pair-wise comparisons and each comparison gives a mapping of the row occupations and the column occupations six in all. Since any one of these should provide a measure of the social order, assuming there to be any consistency in such a concept, we would expect that, at both time periods, the result of the analyses would be six closely-related estimates of the same underlying dimension. This is what is found; the inter-correlations are very high. Furthermore, there is a very strong relationship between the measures of the social order constructed for the two time periods. The analyses are presented within a framework that emphasises the value of the procedures used for understanding the nature of measurement in social science.
How Gender and Ethnicity Intersect: The Significance of Education, Employment and Marital Status
Authors: Bhopal Kalwant
Published: March 2010

This paper examines Labour Force Survey (LFS) statistics on economic activity, highest educational qualification, marital status and ethnicity. The paper will specifically explore comparisons within South Asian groups and between other ethnic groups (Afro-Caribbean and white), to investigate whether marriage has a differential impact for different ethnic groups, and if there have been any changes over time (1984-1994). The LFS data indicates that marital status has a differential impact on economic activity and education for different ethnic groups. When controlling for age (25-30), martial status has more impact on Indian and Pakistani/Bangladeshi groups, than it does for Afro-Caribbean and white groups. There are differences between ethnic groups and there are also differences within the South Asian category. Rapid social change is taking place for the 25-30 age cohort, where some South Asian women are becoming highly educated and entering professional occupations. This finding supports recent research carried out on South Asian women in East London (Bhopal, 1997).
Social Theory and European Transformation: Is there a European Society?
Authors: Delanty G.
Published: March 2010

The concept ‘society’ in social theory has generally presupposed notions of cultural cohesion and social integration associated with national societies and the framework of modernity. This older idea of the social emerged out of the experience with institution-building associated with the rise of the nation-state and the transition from ‘tradition’ to ‘modernity’. The question whether European integration can articulate a conception of the social independent of national society is a major challenge for social theory. This paper explores changing conceptions of the social in recent social theory and applies some of these ideas to European integration. It is argued that we need to rethink our notion of society: instead of a ‘transition’ the kind of social change we are experiencing today is that of social ‘transformation’, a concept which suggests less the ‘end of the social’ than an emerging ‘network’ society based on knowledge. Thus instead of trying to reproduce on the supranational level a model that has reached its limits on the national level, European integration needs to give expression to the emerging power of knowledge. Rejecting the notion of the demos and the ethnos as inappropriate to European integration, the case is made for a discursive understanding of democracy and knowedge.
The Revolution and the Virgin Mary: Popular Religion and Social Change in Nicaragua
Authors: Linkogle S.
Published: March 2010

This article is concerned with analysing the role of popular religion in social transformation in Nicaragua from 1979 to the present, focusing in particular on popular religious practices, as spaces in which gender, political and religious identities are shaped and contested. It explores the elements of Nicaraguan popular religion that were constitutive of a religious and often gendered ‘common sense’ which fostered identification with specific political projects. My aim is two-fold. Firstly, I am concerned to examine some general issues around popular religion in Latin America and its relationship to the practice and pronouncements of the Catholic church. To this end, I begin my analysis of popular religion in Nicaragua with an exploration of some of the general themes which dominate considerations of popular culture and popular religion. I next examine how the issue of popular Catholicism has been taken up both by the ‘official’ church, particularly in the wake of Vatican II, and by liberation theologians. This discussion leads to a more specific focus on popular religion in Latin America. Secondly, I explore ‘Marianism’ and the Nicaraguan popular religious festival La Purísima. Here I focus on the competing gender discourses which are worked through different representations of ‘the Virgin Mary’. These competing discourses are often also linked to different versions of an ‘ideal’ society. Finally the article concludes by outlining how an analysis of popular religious practices can inform a sociological understanding of contradictory processes of social change.
‘Piggy in the Middle’: The Liminality of the Contract Researcher in Funded ‘Collaborative’ Research
Authors: Tilbury Farida
Published: March 2010

This paper considers the challenges faced by contract researchers employed on interdisciplinary, cross institutional research projects. It argues that current funding requirements and a general fashion for ‘collaborative’ research have produced growing numbers of contract researchers employed to carry out other people's research. These contract researchers are caught, like a ‘piggy in the middle’, between disciplinary boundaries, geographic sites, institutional cultures, theoretical incommensurabilities and competing grantholders. Their position is made all the more difficult because such collaborations, in practice, often blur the sense of ‘ownership’ and therefore responsibility for the research, leaving the contract researcher responsible for operationalising and undertaking the work, but with little acknowledgement of their commitment. The paper includes a number of suggestions for dealing with such difficulties.
Building the Hydrogen Highway: The Visions of a Large-Scale Hydrogen Project in Norway
Authors: Sataøen Hogne
Published: March 2010

This paper focuses on the visions incorporated by the Hydrogen Road in Norway (HyNor) project. This is a large-scale project that aims to demonstrate real life implementation of hydrogen in the transport sector in Norway. The starting point of the analysis is that visions play an important role in technological projects. Visions carry, communicate and construct valid practices and meanings in technology. Consequently, visions in technological projects should be a matter of analysis. The following paper discusses both the meaning of technological visions and the kinds of visions that have been deployed in the HyNor project. This discussion shows that HyNor's visions are numerous, flexible and dynamic. Furthermore the ambivalence and tension in the project's visions represent a challenge that needs to be dealt with.
Choosing Qualitative Data Analysis Software: Atlas/ti and Nudist Compared
Authors: Barry Christine A.
Published: March 2010

Choosing between Nudist and Atlas/ti, the main qualitative data analysis software packages can be difficult. To assist researchers in making this choice, I have conceptualised their differences along two dimensions, related to the qualities of the software and of the research project. The software dimension is structural design, and the project dimension is complexity. Software structure is dichotomised between structured, sequential, verbal versus visual, spatial, interconnected modes of operation. Projects are dichotomised between homogeneous sample, short timeframe, single data-type, single data analyst; versus multiple samples, longitudinal data, multiple data types and team data analysis. First I review the CAQDAS literature. Then I outline the different personalities and strengths of Atlas/ti and Nudist, and show how they match these dimensions. I offer suggestions as to how to choose, and whether to use in tandem with complementary conceptual network software.
The Notion of the Gift in the Donation of Body Tissues
Authors: Shaw Rhonda
Published: March 2010

Recent social science commentary on the donation of body tissues and organs typically invokes Richard Titmuss's work on altruism and the gift relationship as a way of framing donative processes. Much of this discussion, however, has neglected to consider how altruism and body gifting is structured and promoted by organisations and institutions that make such processes possible. In this article I suggest that the accounts people give of their body gifting practices do not always fit orthodox notions of tissue donation as unconditional. Rather, people's perceptions of body gifting and donation depend very much on the kind of tissue being donated and who the tissue is being donated to. Given these complexities, we need more thoroughgoing discussion of the rituals associated with specific donation practices.
Born in the USA: Exceptionalism in Maternity Care Organisation among High-Income Countries
Authors: van Teijlingen Edwin , Wrede Sirpa , Benoit Cecilia , Sandall Jane , DeVries Raymond
Published: March 2010

In lay terms, childbirth is regarded as a purely biological event: what is more natural than birth and death? On the other hand, social scientists have long understood that ‘natural’ events are socially structured. In the case of birth, sociologists have examined the social and cultural shaping of its timing, outcome, and the organization of care throughout the perinatal period. Continuing in this tradition, we examine the peculiar social design of birth in the United States of America, contrasting this design with the ways birth is organised in Europe. We begin by showing how several key characteristics of the US health care system – including its inherent social inequality, its high level of medicalisation, and the substantial influence of private medical practice and insurance companies – influence the organization of maternity care there. We then explore how cultural characteristics of American society – its emphasis on individuality, the influence of moral conservatism in US politics, and the ease with which ordinary people take court action (the so-called ‘litigation culture’) – shape the delivery of care at birth. We conclude with a consideration of the implications of US maternity care exceptionalism for comparative sociological analysis.
Reading Foucault: Genealogy and Social Science Research Methodology and Ethics
Authors: Bastalich Wendy
Published: March 2010

Foucault's work has given rise to increased methodological sensitivity of the political dangers associated with traditional qualitative approaches in the social sciences. There is a growing awareness that the widespread use of the research interview is not indicative of a deepening insight into the workings of culture, but is part of a broader social technology for its reproduction. In an effort to re-imagine interview methodology, scholars have read Foucault to suggest the need for greater attention to the active co-construction of research conclusions arising from interview based research. This has led in turn to the view that post modern approaches produce localized, temporally specific knowledge that fails to shed light on deeper, more enduring social structures. This paper questions these interpretations of Foucault's work, arguing that they fail to accurately represent his genealogical method or to consider its implications for research ethics. Foucault rejects a view of knowledge as emerging from the active social constructions of agents or of institutionalised ‘interests’. Rather, Foucault sees knowledge as an outcome, often accidental, of interrelated historical practices and discourses that produce the subjects and objects of social science discourse itself. The implications of Foucault's work for thinking about research ethics is not a return to authenticity or to analyses of social structure, but a rejection of the centralised, regulatory claims of an organised scientific discourse. The paper comprises a review of social science responses to post structural insights, coverage of the critical epistemological differences between Foucault's method and other key social theory paradigms, and a discussion of the critical ethical issues these differences raise for the social sciences.
But Women Can't Have ‘Hemophilia’!: A Look at the Lives of Women with Bleeding Disorder
Authors: Wysocki Diane Kholos
Published: March 2010

Most of the literature about hemophilia has been from a medical perspective and about men. This on-going project has been to document the lives and ‘voices’ of women who have a bleeding disorder, their experiences with the medical community, and the course of their diagnosis and treatment. The women in this study were predominantly Caucasian (92%), were currently married (66.7%), had (68.9%), and of those women who had children, the majority of their children (67.9%), both boys and girls, as well as other family members(63.3%) had some type of bleeding disorder. Findings revealed there was on average, a 14 year gap between the first bleeding episode and the diagnosis of a bleeding disorder. Women reported long, heavy menstrual cycles and having consulted a physician for menstrual bleeding as teenagers. Treatments for menstrual bleeding included D and C's (42.9%) and hysterectomies (34.5%), while referrals to Hemophilia Treatment Centers for a consultation were rare.
The Age of Grief in the Time of Talk
Authors: Brownlie Julie
Published: March 2010

Responding to Charles Tilly's call to map how individuals and groups encounter big structures or large processes, this article is concerned with experiences of one particular social process: the move towards emotional openess. Drawing on a mixed methods study of emotions talk, the article questions this ‘en bloc’ narrative of social change ‘in our own time’ (Tilly, 1984). In particular, through analysis of survey data, it highlights the life-stage and cohort effects shaping the experiences of those in their middle years, ‘the age of grief’; and through indepth analysis of qualitative interviews, it embeds these effects in particular local contexts and relationships and within a particular historical time, the time of talk. In doing so, it concludes that while Tilly is right to suggest stories about social change do social work, he underestimates the extent to which they also offer crucial insight in to the nature of the social, particularly through the reckoning of relationships and their emotional legacies.
Big Punning, Large Troping and Huge Riddling: Why and how Macbeth and other narrative texts are important and how to deal with them
Authors: Maslen Joseph
Published: March 2010

In William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth the narrative takes place at the interface between the auto/biographical and the social. The story is focused on the level of the state and polis, but also on a human level, and Macbeth's conflict with the idea of society as a static model is a social act. The usefulness of the literary for sociology is emphasised in Macbeth's narrative and its moves from minor to major. The sociological study of literature connects important proto-sociological insights to sociology more formally: narratives are everywhere, pervasive in sociology as a discipline as much as in literature, and more strongly society is based on the literary in the sense that narratives provide a route into collective and frequently political processes. It is not just that ‘the play's the thing’, as Shakespeare wrote, but more generally that the text - the text of any document - though a close analysis of its structure, organisation, tropes, characterisation, plot developments and so on, is important in opening up for analytical scrutiny a particular viewpoint on social mores. Tilly's emphasis is on material realities, but literary ideas and tools are highly relevant to accomplishing his aims for sociology. Looking from sociology to literature to society and back again is a huge comparison, fantastical but metaphorically real; and in the case of Macbeth, the textual means and moralities by which persons engage with the polis provides insights into such matters outside, as well as inside, the text.
Individualized Housing Careers in Early Adulthood: Conditions and Constraints in a Familistic Society
Authors: Nico Magda
Published: March 2010

This article discusses the unsteady and uncertain conditions in which a potentially individualized life course co-exists with and survives in a so-called institutionalized, standardized, familistic and sub-protective society. For the purpose, non-family living in early adulthood in a southern European country (Portugal) is taken as the example. On one hand, data from the 2006 European Social Survey (23 countries, N=43000) is used to contextualize the Portuguese transition to adulthood and the preconceptions about the so-called familistic societies in general. On the other hand, data on events and values from a small sample of young adults living alone in Portugal (aged 24-30, N=120, approximately 1% of the universe considered), along with official statistics on a housing programme for these young adults (Rental Incentive for Young People), allows us to analytically deconstruct preconceptions about the relation between intergenerational support and welfare policies in familistic societies. This data demonstrates most of all how a mismatch between the still-prevailing institutionalization of life courses in some societies and the reflexivity characterizing contemporary biographies produces critical points in young people's lives. It also demonstrates the adaptability of family cultures to these ‘choice biographies’ in comparison to the lack of adaptability of some youth policies, in particular those involving housing. These processes of mismatching and misunderstanding reflect and promote the inadequacy and inefficiency of communication between youth research and policy-making.
The Impact of Spatial Segregation on the Employment Outcomes Amongst Bangladeshi Men and Women in England and Wales
Authors: Khattab Nabil , Johnston Ron , Sirkeci Ibrahim , Modood Tariq
Published: March 2010

Studies of ethnic residential segregation and its impacts on labour market performance have reported both negative and positive outcomes for different groups in different geographies. We revisit the issue with a particular focus on the Bangladeshi minority in England and Wales using both quantitative and qualitative data to explore the impact of living in segregated areas upon their labour market outcomes. We analyse the 2001 UK Census Controlled Access Microdata Sample (CAMS) and a subset (34 Bangladeshis) of qualitative data collected through in-depth interviews with 73 men and women from Indian, Bangladeshi and Black Caribbean backgrounds in 2005. Our quantitative analysis does show a clear negative impact of living in segregated areas (i.e. Bangladeshi ethnic enclaves) on unemployment, economic inactivity and on the occupational returns on education. Qualitative material suggests that cultural and practical reasons very often lead Bangladeshis, including highly qualified persons, to live in enclaves or nearby. Also, ethnic businesses in enclaves appear to offer jobs to many Bangladeshi men and women, but these jobs are normally low-paid that does not require high qualifications increasing the risk of lower occupational returns further.
A Critical Response to Sara Scott's ‘Here be Dragons: Researching the Unbelievable, Hearing the Unthinkable. A Feminist Sociologist in Uncharted Territory’
Authors: Huntington Annie
Published: March 2010

This paper offers a critique of Sara Scott's recent work, which provided an account of the research process as the author documents and analyses the experiences of survivors of organised sadistic abuse. [1] More specifically, it responds to Scott's assertion that acceptance of a ‘subtle’ realist epistemological stance offers an adequate base from which to make ‘truth’ claims. The difficulties around defining and defending the truth status of individuals’ accounts, in an emotionally charged context, are truncated within this framework. The ongoing struggle to work with the complexity of academic discourses, without denying the lived experiences of individuals, requires us to struggle with the tensions and contradictions even as we seek to make judgements about ‘truth’ claims that are inevitably socially constructed, situated and specific.
Crown Street Revisited
Authors: Moore Robert
Published: March 2010

This note describes a study to discover the extent to which it would be possible to follow the respondents in a 1978/79 social survey in inner Liverpool. The follow up would be used to describe the ways in which peoples’ circumstances had changed in the intervening 17 years. It would also provide an opportunity to discover how the respondents themselves viewed the changes that had taken place in inner Liverpool (if that was where they still lived) and the extent to which they had realized the aspirations they expressed in 1978/79 (wherever they now lived). An additional benefit of the research was to ‘test the water’ for forthcoming policy related research in Liverpool.

The results of the pilot study are clear and unambiguous: it was not possible to follow up the previous respondents. Reasons for this are believed to include changing attitudes towards giving information and to reservations about collaborating in research projects which in the context of inner city Liverpool are seen to have no benefits to local people. The prognosis for future survey-based research is poor.

These findings are consistent with more anecdotal evidence from colleagues working elsewhere in inner city areas and in sharp contrast to similar work undertaken in the very different political climate of the 1970s.
Prediction in Sociology: Prospects for a Devalued Activity
Authors: Aldridge Alan
Published: March 2010

The nineteenth-century founders of sociology were in no doubt that sociology is a predictive discipline. This was a key component of its constitution as a science, in contrast to religious mythology and metaphysics. Comte's formula ‘Savoir pour prévoir et prévoir pour pouvoir’ neatly captures the mood and mission of the sociological enterprise at its foundation. As the twentieth century closes, prediction has become almost a taboo word, connoting an embarrassing affiliation to vulgar positivism, scientism and technocracy. This article argues that many of our current fears about prediction are exaggerated or misplaced. If sociology is to regain its standing in the public domain we need to reclaim prediction as a core element in the sociological project.
Necessary Evils? Opening up Closings in Sociology and Biotechnology
Authors: Gofton Les , Haimes Erica
Published: March 2010

This paper argues for an opening up of the theoretical and empirical closure on issues related to biotechnology. It argues that the real differences between issues and approaches in the disparate areas where genetic modification is used, from medicine to food production, have tended, for specific reasons, to be treated as though they could all be subsumed within a common set of issues and theoretical perspectives. Using examples from the existing sociological work in medicine and food, the paper presents an argument against the commonly assumed theoreticýprimacy of scientific discourses, often focussed on common issues of risk, and the related assumption thatýresistance to the introduction of gm products is best addressed by providing information and education. It argues rather that we need to treat each area as a very particularýresearch topic, and to maintain a clearýnotion of the variety of perspectives needingýto be employed in treating quite distinct applications of these varied technologies.
‘Social Work Research as Knowledge/Power in Practice’
Authors: D'Cruz Heather
Published: March 2010

Traditionally, social research is represented as a neutral (objective) search for knowledge as an entity, for which claims of ‘reliability’, ‘validity’ and ‘credibility’ may be made if the researcher follows prescribed techniques of inquiry. From this perspective, techniques of inquiry may cause harm to informants who are subjected to the process of inquiry. Therefore, ethical research is about the legal and moral protection of subjects from the researcher's techniques of inquiry. The research relationship is constituted as one between ‘powerful researcher’ and ‘powerless researched’. Alternative views which foreground the researcher (and informants’) subjectivities as positioned sites of power challenge the unitary identities of ‘more powerful researcher’ and ‘less powerful researched’. In this paper I show through reflection on my PhD research, how the identities of ‘researcher’ and ‘researched’ are fluid, dynamic relations of power, by which ‘knowledge’ is achieved through processes of negotiation and access to ‘sites of knowledge/power’. From this perspective, knowledge is not an entity for which definitive claims of ‘reliability’, ‘validity’ and ‘credibility’ can be made. Nor are ‘research ethics’ simply the responsibility of the researcher but instead are complex and shifting micropractices of power/knowledge between ‘researcher’ and ‘researched’.
‘Researching a Hard-To- Access and Vulnerable Population: Some Considerations on Researching Drug and Alcohol-Using Mothers’
Authors: Goode Sarah
Published: March 2010

Research indicates that the number of women using drugs, including alcohol, is increasing nationally, particularly among women of childbearing age. Nevertheless it is still largely men who contact drug or alcohol agencies for help, while women with children are particularly reluctant to access services and tend to remain a hidden population. Thus learning more about the lives of substance-using mothers is an important area of concern, pragmatically in terms of developing effective social policy which addresses their and their families’ needs, and sociologically in terms of studying a little-known and vulnerable population. This article discusses the conduct of a project set up to address this gap in knowledge and investigate the everyday lives and experiences of a sample of substance-using mothers in the mid-1990s. Accessing this population proved very difficult because of such factors as the women's involvement in illegal activities, lack of stable housing, and the stigma of being a mother with a substance-use problem. Several strategies to overcome these problems were tried, of which the most successful was relying on drug and alcohol workers as gate-keepers to assist in locating and recruiting volunteers for interview. Because it was so central to the success of the project, as the research progressed the role of the drug-worker became itself a focus for analysis. Having discussed aspects of the researcher/respondent relationship, therefore, the article focuses on the drug-worker/client relationship, and concludes by suggesting that drug-workers are typically required to act in both a counsellor and an authoritarian role, which appears from the research to lead at times to a problematic relationship with clients. The article ends by questioning whether the nature of the drug-worker/client relationship and the drug-worker's status as gate-keeper may at times in itself contribute to the research inaccessibility of this vulnerable population.
‘Feminist Analysis of Science and the Implications for Higher Education’
Authors: Bloor Kate
Published: March 2010

Feminism(s) as practice(s) in the world of the women's movements have frequently either rejected science and scientific approaches or utilised scientific evidence in support of arguments, positions and campaigns. This has happened with some degree of contradiction. Problems of how feminist theory deals with questions about the nature and role of science and scientific techniques and information still remain. The debates that are taking place are complex, and have rarely been utilised or applied in the situation of how higher education might utilise them. This paper attempts to examine current philosophical and feminist ideas about the nature of science, to assess if it is possible to theorise about the possibility of a feminist science. Equally problematic is the application of these ideas to the context of higher education, and providing more women or feminist orientated educational practice. This paper draws links between theory about science, and issues in relation to the higher education curriculum. It argues the case that although this theorising may appear difficult to apply, there are several ways by which it may be used to guide thinking about how education courses may be structured in order to allow students to learn in ways that may not be as limited as previously. These debates are new, ongoing, and yet not fully explored and so this paper provides a position from where this might be explored, and therefore demonstrates some areas for further exploration.
Writing about Health and Sickness: An Analysis of Contemporary Autobiographical Writing from the British Mass-Observation Archive
Authors: Busby Helen
Published: March 2010

In this paper, I explore some of the writing about health and sickness undertaken by volunteers writing for a British social history archive. The Mass-Observation Archive's commissioning of diaries and other forms of self- reportage has made it a prominent part of the landscape of sociology in Britain (Calder, 1985). Initiated during the 1930s, the Mass-Observation Archive's early work included the well-known worktown project. The early project was wound up in 1950, but interest in the archives eventually prompted a new project, initiated in 1981. The ‘new project’ is essentially a collection of writing on a range of issues by a panel of volunteers recruited through the media and other informal means. This paper represents a cycling through of ideas about the relationships between health, sickness, and work, via my reading of some of the writing held at the Archive. The writings with which this paper is centrally concerned are the responses to an invitation issued in the autumn of 1998 for writing about ‘Staying well and everyday life’. In addition, writings on ‘The pace of life’ and on working life were consulted. Unlike much of the data about sickness in relation to work - which relies on documentation of sickness absence- these accounts show actions which are not taken. Some of them point to a phenomenon which I have termed ‘shadow sickness, that is illness which exists without there being a mechanism to translate that experience into recognised sickness. Overall though it is the moral context of illness and of ideas about staying well which are prominent in many of these accounts and which are discussed in this paper.
Can't Talk, Won't Talk?: Methodological Issues in Researching Children
Authors: Harden Jeni , Scott Sue , Backett-Milburn Kathryn , Jackson Stevi
Published: March 2010

In this paper we explore some current issues in, what has come to be called, the new sociology of childhood and how these relate to the process of researching children's lives in general, and to our own research in particular. We discuss the developmental model of childhood, before going on to explore ideas about children as, on the one hand, inhabiting a relatively autonomous realm and, on the other as part of the same social world as adults but with different sets of competencies. The implications of these differing positions for researching children will be assessed prior to a discussion of the design of our current research, on children and risk, and the wider implications of our reflections on the research process.
Financing the Market-Based Redistribution of Land to Disadvantaged Farmers and Farm Workers in South Africa: Recent Performance of the Land Reform Credit Facility
Authors: Lyne Michael , Zille Paul , Graham Douglas
Published: March 2010

This paper compares the results of public and private land redistribution in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It identifies problems that constrain access to the land market, and describes recent efforts to address the liquidity problem associated with mortgage finance. The Land Reform Credit Facility (LRCF) was launched by government in May 1999 to help alleviate cash flow problems on farms purchased by disadvantaged buyers and financed with mortgage loans from commercial banks. The LRCF does not offer subsidies. Rather it offers loans with deferred or graduated repayment schedules to reputable banks and venture capital investors who finance, on similar terms, equity-share projects and land purchased by aspiring farmers. The paper outlines the LRCF experience and considers reasons for its promising start. The loan target of R15 million (US$2.15 million) set for the first year was reached after only eight months.
The Plausibility of Class Cultural Explanations: An Analysis of Social Homogeneity using Swedish Data from the Late 1990s
Authors: Bihagen Erik
Published: March 2010

Previous findings of large absolute mobility to service I class (the “upper” part of the “salariat”) can be seen as a sign of the implausibility of class cultures. However, it is argued that these findings might be due to inappropriate divisions of class. Using Swedish data, and following a Weberian definition of class, a social class schema is derived empirically from marriage tendencies. Social homogeneity (immobility and in-marriage) is found to be relatively large in the working classes and in certain subgroups of service I. One interpretation of this, and the fact that there are few inter- marriages and a low level of mobility between the working class and these subgroups of service I, is that class structure might be bipolar such that the extremes are upholders of certain norms and cultures. The possible upper classes of service I need to be better operationalised in future research. Thus, since class cultures are plausible, and since individualistic rational action theory appears to be insufficient for explaining all possible class differentials (as earlier research has indicated), future class analysis might better rely on both rational action theory and class cultural explanations.
Physiotherapists and Evidence Based Practice: An Opportunity or Threat to the Profession?
Authors: Wiles Rose , Barnard Sue
Published: March 2010

The profession of physiotherapy in the UK is undergoing a period of change. Prominent among these aspects of change is the movement to evidence based practice (EBP). EBP is a central element of policy in the National Health Service (NHS). It is being implemented in physiotherapy as a means of securing contracts with purchasers but also as a means of contesting challenges from alternative practitioners and health professionals to the areas of work that physiotherapists view as their territory. Using data collected from a qualitative study of 56 physiotherapists of different grades working in different sectors of the NHS, this paper explores physiotherapists’ views of EBP and the impact that they expect it to have on professional boundaries and on the status and practice of physiotherapy. The study indicated that physiotherapists’ views may differ according to their position in the profession. Senior physiotherapists appeared to view the development of EBP as a threat to the profession which would decrease professional autonomy and the status of the profession. In contrast, junior and superintendent physiotherapists appeared to view EBP as an opportunity for strengthening the profession. The impact EBP will have on the profession of physiotherapy and its relationships with a range of health professionals is as yet unknown as are the responses that physiotherapists are likely to have to this development. This study identifies the areas in which conflicts are likely to be played out. A focus for future research analysing the impact of EBP is suggested.
Homosexuality and Refugee Status in the United Kingdom
Authors: McGhee Derek
Published: March 2010

In this paper the legal institutional practices whereby refugee statuses are determined is subjected to examination through the vehicle of cases where homosexuality has been the basis of the application for refugee status. What emerges in this article is a narrative of homosexuals being excluded from and eventually included in refugee status in the United Kingdom. This narrative is played out within the discursive context of a particular definition of refugee status, namely, that of being a member of a persecuted social group. It is through the analysis of refugee case law in the United Kingdom and internationally that homosexuality is presented, as providing specific problems for refugee law in terms of whom, and in what circumstances, should be included in the ‘social group’ category. In this paper it will be demonstrated that homosexual cases are significant in relation to the attempt to overcome ‘exclusive definitions’ of ‘persecuted social groups’ in refugee law. This is evident, most particularly in terms of the increasing connection between International Refugee Law and International Human Rights Law in the consideration of the persecution experienced by homosexuals in the cases analysed in the paper.
From Smart Bombs to Smart Bugs: Thinking the Unthinkable in Medical Sociology and Beyond
Authors: Williams Simon
Published: March 2010

Steve Fuller's article on the events of September 11th raises a number of important questions about the role of sociology in public discussion and debate. This brief response, in taking up this challenge, focuses on the issue of bio-terrorism. In doing so, a balance sheet is provided of the potential threat this poses, drawing both on the history of biological and chemical weapons to date, and the potential epidemics of fear they unleash in the aftermath of September 11th. Medical sociology, it is argued, alongside the sociology of emotions, is particularly well placed to address such issues, including questions of the biological and broader themes of war and health, medicine and the military.
Opening and Closing the Gates: Recent Developments in Male Social Mobility in Britain
Authors: Payne Geoff , Roberts Judy
Published: March 2010

Sociological understanding of social mobility in Britain has depended heavily on the 1972 Nuffield Mobility Study. In the virtual absence of more recent data, analysis has drawn on this single study with its reliance on cohorts of males as the indicator of changes in mobility. One of the central conclusions has been that relative mobility rates, the key marker of class inequalities, remain unchanged. A new analysis of data from recent British Election Surveys shows that these conclusions should not be empirically generalised to the last quarter of a century, and that British society has experienced both periods of greater ?openness? and ‘closure’. Several conceptual reservations follow once the limitations of the ‘Nuffield tradition’ have been identified. In particular, a case is made for closer attention to labour market processes and rates of absolute mobility.
A Simulation of the Structure of the World-Wide Web
Authors: Boudourides Moses , Antypas Gerasimos
Published: March 2010

In this paper we are presenting a simple simulation of the Internet World-Wide Web, where one observes the appearance of web pages belonging to different web sites, covering a number of different thematic topics and possessing links to other web pages. The goal of our simulation is to reproduce the form of the observed World-Wide Web and of its growth, using a small number of simple assumptions. In our simulation, existing web pages may generate new ones as follows: First, each web page is equipped with a topic concerning its contents. Second, links between web pages are established according to common topics. Next, new web pages may be randomly generated and subsequently they might be equipped with a topic and be assigned to web sites. By repeated iterations of these rules, our simulation appears to exhibit the observed structure of the World-Wide Web and, in particular, a power law type of growth. In order to visualise the network of web pages, we have followed N. Gilbert's (1997) methodology of scientometric simulation, assuming that web pages can be represented by points in the plane. Furthermore, the simulated graph is found to possess the property of small worlds, as it is the case with a large number of other complex networks.
Royal Ageing: The Queen Mother and Queen Victoria
Authors: Hepworth Mike
Published: March 2010

This paper is a reflection on the contribution of the image of the Queen Mother to the cultural construction of role models of positive ageing. The interest lies in the Queen Mother's performance in public of her roles as woman and royal personage particularly as she grew older. It is suggested that cultural analysis of the icon of the Queen Mother as a blend of gender and power suggests certain significant parallels with the imagery cultivated around the career of Queen Victoria in the later years of her life.