bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Audience Effects on Self‐Presentation in Childhood
Authors: Banerjee Robin
Published: March 2003

Controlling one's public image in front of different audiences is an important element of social behaviour, but little is known about the way in which primary school children develop this skill. In three experiments, children's judgements about appropriate self‐descriptions in front of different audiences were examined. In Experiment 1, 74 children aged between 6 and 11 were given pairs of self‐descriptive statements in the domains of academic skills, physical/athletic skills, and interpersonal skills. They were asked to decide which one of each pair would be better for a story character to say when getting acquainted with either an unfamiliar peer or an unfamiliar adult, assuming all self‐descriptive options were true. Results showed clear differentiation between the two audiences only in the oldest children. In Experiment 2, 72 children from the same age range completed a similar task, but specific information was given in advance about the audiences’ preferences (e.g., for clever people vs. sporty people). It was found that children from across the age range were able to regulate their choices of self‐descriptions in accordance with the audience preferences. However, the extent of audience differentiation increased significantly with age. In Experiment 3, 68 children from the same age range completed the task from the previous experiment, but additionally provided sociometric nominations of classmates with whom they played. As hypothesised, correlational analysis showed that the variability in audience differentiation was associated significantly with the variability in the proportion of nominations that were reciprocated. Results are discussed in the light of theoretical connections between children's social experience and their developing appreciation of self‐presentational concerns.
Gendered Social Worlds in Preschool: Dominance, Peer Acceptance and Assertive Social Skills in Boys’ and Girls’ Peer Groups
Authors: Sebanc Anne M. , Pierce Susan L. , Cheatham Carol L. , Gunnar Megan R.
Published: March 2003

How dominance in the competitive MovieViewer (MV) task relates to peer preference and assertive behavior, and whether these relations differ for boys and girls were explored. Ninety‐one preschool children in same‐sex quartets were videotaped interacting in the MV task and dominance ranks were assigned according to viewing time. Peer preference was explored by looking separately at the number of likes and dislikes a child received in sociometric interviews. Multivariate analyses revealed that sex interacted with rank to explain peer acceptance but not peer rejection. High ranked boys were accepted more by peers than low ranked boys, while low ranked girls were accepted more than high ranked girls. Further analyses revealed that girls, but not boys, accepted the low ranked girls. The difference in girls’ and boys’ acceptance of same‐sex peers who act assertively in the MV task is consistent with the notion that gendered cultures develop in the preschool years.
Sleep Safely: Crime Risks May Be Smaller than you Think
Authors: Kemshall Hazel
Published: March 2003

Recent events of extreme violence against members of the public such as the Dunblane killings have heightened both media and public perceptions of crime risks. This paper draws upon existing and ongoing research to review how risks are perceived, and the possible role such perceptions may play in the crime risks debate. In particular, are the processes by which we perceive risk and danger prone to exaggeration, and if so, what effect might such exaggerations have upon the formulation and implementation of policies aimed at dealing with crime risks? The impact of such policies upon one section of the criminal justice system, the Probation Service, is considered along with responses that officers and managers in the Probation Service are making to the new imperative to identify and effectively manage offender risks.
The Emergence of a Community‐based Social Assistance Programme in Urban China
Authors: Leung Joe C. B. , Wong Hilda S. W.
Published: March 2003

To many people, the problem of poverty in China was confined mainly to the rural areas, and the situation of urban poverty was regarded as insignificant. Yet in fact, market‐orientated economic reforms have created an urban underclass, made up of poorly paid state workers, the unemployed, and migrants from the countryside. In attempting to respond to the mounting needs of the urban poor, the Chinese government has introduced a means‐tested social assistance programme in the cities since the mid‐1990s. This paper describes the basic philosophy, structure and operation of this programme, and provides a general assessment of its functions and shortcomings.
Synthesizing Research and Practice: Using the Action Research Approach in Health Care Settings
Authors: Bate Paul
Published: March 2003

The traditional dichotomy between research and practice invariably results in having to make difficult choices between the two, or trying to balance them in some way in order to keep both academic and corporate ‘sponsors’ happy. The real challenge is not so much balancing the two as achieving a closer fusion and synthesis between them. The action research model offers one such way forward in this regard, being better placed than either the ‘applied research’ model or the ‘consultancy’ model to realize the synergies and complementarities between research and practice. Action research is a mutual learning process within which people work together to discover what the issues are, why they exist, and how they might be addressed. Over time there is a blurring of the traditional roles of practitioner and researcher, the former becoming ‘researching practitioners’, the latter ‘practising researchers’. The different phases of the action research model are illustrated using data from NHS case studies and relevant literature. Although the focus is upon how an organizational anthropologist would use the model, the suggestion is that it commends itself to a much broader constituency of social scientists and qualitative researchers working in the social and public policy arenas, and hence merits further investigation by all of these.
Regenerating the Inner City: Lessons from the UK’s City Challenge Experience
Authors: Fearnley Rebecca
Published: March 2003

This paper uses the findings of the evaluation of Stratford City Challenge (SCC) to critically examine the effectiveness of the City Challenge policy and to question the extent to which it was an innovation in urban policy, with lessons which have been incorporated into subsequent policies. It examines the particular characteristics of the policy which contributed to its innovative status, many of which have been incorporated into policies such as New Deal and the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB). What local evaluations such as the one which has been carried out in Stratford suggest is that many of these distinctive characteristics actually constrained the capacity of local programmes to be effective and achieve their aims, as to some extent they dictated the types of projects most likely to succeed. The author suggests that there are lessons which could be drawn from the City Challenge experience, but that many of these were overlooked or not fully considered by policy makers when they introduced subsequent policies such as the SRB and New Deal. Thus these policies may encounter similar problems in achieving their aims, and an opportunity to learn from these evaluations and build on past experiences has not been fully maximized. This paper uses SCC as a case study to draw out some of the wider implications of the experience for national policy.
American Juvenile Justice: Recent Trends and Issues in Youth Offending
Authors: Jenson Jeffrey M. , Potter Cathryn C. , Howard Matthew O.
Published: March 2003

Trends in juvenile offending in the United States since the 1970s are reviewed. Serious youth violence, co‐occurring mental health and substance abuse problems among offenders, female delinquency, and other issues currently confronting the American juvenile justice system are examined. Policy considerations associated with recent trends in juvenile offending among American youth are identified.
New Labour, Old Functionalism: The Underlying Contradictions of Welfare Reform in the US and the UK
Authors: Prideaux Simon
Published: March 2003

Through references to Hansard, official papers, Fabian pamphlets and pertinent texts from the fields of politics, sociology and social policy, this piece illustrates the similarities of thought behind the deliberations of New Labour and those of the early American functionalists and their modern‐day counterparts. Examination of the rhetoric used by both parties shows that there are three main focal points of comparison. On one level there is a shared belief in the cohesive impetus of realistic ‘aspiration’ in a stratified society. On another, there is a mutual desire to balance individual ‘rights’ with communal ‘responsibilities’. Finally, there is a common concern over the apperceived problem of the ‘underclass’ and how to deal with it. On the basis that these interrelated topics influenced social policy through the intensity of debate around them, the piece moves on to set the resultant American and British models of ‘workfare’ alongside the proposed ‘New Deals’ of New Labour. This has a threefold purpose. First, by detailing these examples the influence of the likes of Charles Murray and Lawrence Mead in future Labour policy may be observed. Second, the American association is particularly important in that the theoretical basis and practical experience of US social policy in the 1980s can act as an actual, realized example of the problems facing the proposed welfare policies of New Labour. Third, this comparison allows the piece to move on and discuss the failings of such authoritarian welfare programmes in the light of modern capitalism and modern society. In this way a conclusion on the effectiveness of New Labour and its unrealized ‘New Deal’ for Britain is broached.
Young People, Housing Benefit and the Risk Society
Authors: Kemp Peter A. , Rugg Julie
Published: March 2003

This paper draws on debates about the risk society to examine the impact of the “single room rent”, a restriction in the housing benefit scheme that applies to single people under 25 living in privately rented housing. Drawing on qualitative interviews in six localities in England, the paper examines young people’s ability to gain access to and afford privately rented accommodation while receiving housing benefit. It argues that the single room rent restriction has not only cut their housing benefit entitlement but also created more uncertainty for young people. Consequently, it has enhanced rather than ameliorated the risks faced by young people on low incomes in the private rental housing market.
The Care of Older People: Australia and the United Kingdom
Authors: Healy Judith
Published: March 2003

Australia and the United Kingdom have tried various ways to contain the growth and cost of institutional care for older people. The Australian government adopted central planning strategies from the mid‐1980s that succeeded in limiting nursing home places and increasing community services. The United Kingdom government in the mid‐1990s required local governments to adopt quasi‐market strategies but with less success in containing the growth and cost of institutional care. The two countries changed political direction later in the 1990s but both the Australian Liberal (conservative) government and UK “New Labour” want people to pay more for their care in old age. Each country has something to learn from the policy experiences of the other, including the contentious issue of who should pay for aged care.
Paying for Old Age: Can People on Lower Incomes Afford Domiciliary Care Costs?
Authors: Deeming Chris , Keen Justin
Published: March 2003

The Labour government has made it clear that it will not countenance major changes in the financing of long–term care for older people in England and Wales. One consequence is that people on modest retirement incomes will continue to have to pay for elements of their care in their own homes. The government also implicitly assumes that people of working age, on average and below–average earnings, are expected to save in order to pay for long–term care. However, evidence about individuals’ willingness and ability to save and to pay for long–term care is scanty. Accordingly, an interview survey of 100 people—today’s and tomorrow’s pensioners—was undertaken in June and July 2000. They were asked detailed questions about their financial circumstances, and about their ability to pay more towards their own health and social care costs, now and in the future. The results suggest that today’s pensioners on average and lower incomes are experiencing difficulties in paying for care services in their own homes. Tomorrow’s pensioners who are currently on average and lower incomes will struggle to pay for care services in their own homes. The results also support the view that people tend to overestimate their retirement incomes and do not understand how long–term care is financed. They think that the government can and should pay for long–term care.
Opportunity for Childcare: The Impact of Government Initiatives in England upon Childcare Provision
Authors: Rahilly Simon , Johnston Elaine
Published: March 2003

This paper considers the impact of recent government initiatives upon childcare provision for children under the age of five. It is based upon interviews with parents and providers from two contrasting wards in Liverpool. The aim of the research was to identify key issues and concerns with regard to childcare, and perceptions about the impact of developments within social security and education provision. Government policies have concentrated on supporting working parents who need to pay for formal childcare, and on providing an earlier start to the formal education of young children. There is a fear that this focus may be failing to recognize and support the diversity of families and their childcare needs.
Social Policy in Greece: Rhetoric versus Reform
Authors: Venieris Dimitris
Published: March 2003

This paper reviews the major social policy developments in Greece during the 1980s and 1990s, focusing on social security, health and employment policies. It argues that the concept of social policy and the practice of politics have been distorted in this country. Social policy reflects the legacy of a heavily politicized and centralized policy‐making system, an impoverished administrative infrastructure and poorly developed social services. Its emergence is characterized by the pursuit of late and ineffective policies. It lacks continuity, planning and coordination, being oriented towards short‐term political expediency. It is largely insurance‐based, reproducing huge inequalities and institutional arrangements which are behind the times. It provides mainly cash benefits, low‐quality but rather expensive health services and marginal social welfare protection. Moreover, the lack of a minimum income safety net confirms the country's weak culture of universalism and social citizenship. By implication, complex policy and interlocking interest linkages have tarnished the “system” with a reputation for strong resistance to progressive change. At the same time, sources of change such as globalization, demographic developments, new household and family/gender patterns, unstable economic growth, fiscal imperatives, programme maturation, as well as persisting unemployment, changing labour markets and rising health care costs, have produced mounting pressures for welfare reform.
Food, Social Policy and the Environment: Towards a New Model
Authors: Lang Tim , Barling David , Caraher Martin
Published: March 2003

Food policy is high on the public policy agenda, but still suffers from a lack of overview and integration. The paper reviews examples of policy limitations where tighter and more explicit links could usefully be made between environmental, social and public health considerations. The paper proposes a new ecological health approach to public policy. This offers marked advantages over the present “productionist” approach to food policy. With this old policy regime in crisis, the paper reviews current moves towards adoption of the ecological health model in Britain, Europe and globally.
The Citizenship of Excluded Groups: Challenging the Consumerist Agenda
Authors: Bolzan Natalie , Gale Fran
Published: March 2003

The language of consumerism suggests that through involvement in consumer processes, consumers can influence policy formation and service provision. This paper examines, as illustrative cases in Australia, how two groups of consumers, people with a mental illness and older people, engage with these consumer processes. It finds they critically evaluate the opportunity offered by consumer processes for inclusion in policy and programmes. Both people with a mental illness and interviewed older people indicated how they acted as “agents involved in interpreting their needs”, despite finding that in consumer processes their needs were predefined. Rather than allowing themselves to be constructed as passive objects, they positioned themselves as active citizens, having agency not as individual consumers but through drawing on networks. The responses of both groups go some distance toward dismantling power differences between professionals and “consumers”, suggesting that social policy and programmes for both people with mental illness and older people can and sometimes do develop in a context of greater inclusivity.
Patterns of Governance: The Curious Case of Non‐profit Community Services in Australia
Authors: McDonald Catherine , Marston Greg
Published: March 2003

“Community” has taken on a new significance in Australian social policy discourse. Seemingly sound and morally justifiable, in the context of neo‐liberalism the language of community positions non‐profit delivery of services as superior to state‐provided services. As a consequence, non‐profit community services are being centrally positioned to mediate the relationship between the state and citizen subjects. In the first part of this paper we trace some of the key historical developments in Australia’s welfare state and patterns of governance that are propelling the non‐profit sector from the margins to the centre. The second section examines the relationship between Australia’s shifting political landscape and the emerging welfare regime. One key feature of this new regime is the attempt to relocate citizenship away from the domain of the state and into that of civil society. The article concludes by sketching out some research themes, focusing, for example, on the impact of devolution of governance in terms of client rights and public accountability.
British and European Influences on the “Australian Way” from the 1980s
Authors: Smyth Paul
Published: March 2003

Commonwealth countries share their British social policy legacy in a variety of ways. Autstralia attempted to adopt the postwar “new Fabian” welfare state model at the very time when international economic circumstances undermined its Keynesian foundation. With Labor governments in power from 1983 to 1996, Australia diverged significantly from the neo‐liberal reform path adopted in the United Kingdom. Australian governments looked increasingly to European social democracies for alternative social policy models. In a manner anticipating the “Third Way”, the tendency was towards mixing neo‐liberal economics with social democratic welfare. The Australian “Third Way” which resulted proved unstable. Current social reformers, the paper proposes, ought to revisit a neglected but characteristically British emphasis on the need for a measure of “socialization of investment” to underpin redistributive strategies.
The Evolution of Food Safety Policy–making Institutions in the UK, EU and Codex Alimentarius
Authors: Millstone Erik , Van Zwanenberg Patrick
Published: March 2003

After the British government announced in March 1996 that a novel fatal human disease (now called variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease) had emerged and was almost certainly caused by consuming BSE–contaminated food, national and international authorities have been struggling to deal with the consequences of a serious loss of public confidence in the safety of foods and in food safety policy–making institutions. One of the main ways in which governments and officials have responded to those challenges has been by initiating a broad range of structural and procedural reforms to the ways in which public policies are decided, legitimated and communicated. This paper outlines some of the more important respects in which national and international authorities have changed the ways in which they assess and manage the risks to human consumers of food–borne hazards. The focus is on developments in the UK, the EU and, at the global level, the Codex Alimentarius Commission; the period covered runs from the late 1960s until summer 2002. The discussion focuses on the case for separating the responsibilities for regulating and sponsoring the agricultural and food industries, for conducting risk appraisals and decision–making in open and democratically accountable ways and for drawing on experts representing a wide range of interests and expertise rather than on a narrow industry–based group. The paper concludes by indicating some key structural and procedural conditions for effectively differentiating the scientific from the political aspects of risk appraisal and decision–making, and then for coupling them together in ways that would provide both scientific and democratic legitimacy.
Family Production and the Global Market: Rural Industrial Growth in Greece
Authors: Kalantaridis Christos , Labrianidis Lois
Published: March 2003

Rural areas in southern Europe generally, and in Greece in particular, have undergone rapid economic growth and structural transformation over the last three decades. The emergence of family‐owned and run businesses in agriculture, manufacturing and tourism was the common element to this phenomenon. However, the systematic investigation of change in the countryside was hampered by the perpetuation of an artificial dichotomy between economic geographers and political economists. This paper aspires to address that gap in the literature by advocating the development of an integrated approach to the study of social and economic transformation in the countryside. In so doing, we focus upon a case of rural industrialization led by garment‐manufacturing, an industry at the vanguard of globalization throughout the post‐war era. We argue that the characteristics of this industry are formed not only by the changes in the global market‐place but also by institutions deeply embedded in the traditional socio‐economic milieu.
The Common Agricultural Policy and the Re‐Invention of the Rural in the European Community
Authors: Gray John
Published: March 2003

This paper shifts the focus of definitional debates about the nature of rurality from the academic field to an agricultural field that includes the European Community, its Common Agricultural Policy and farmers whose lives and livelihoods are significantly entailed by it. It traces the evolution of the Common Agricultural Policy, the concepts of rurality embedded with it and the mediated effects of this policy on farming people and their practices. Ethnographic material about hill sheep farmers of the Borders Region of Scotland is used to illustrate the ‘policy‐effect’ (a term derived from Bourdieu's notion of ‘theory effect’) of the Common Agricultural Policy: the definitions of and policies for rural spaces devised by the European Community in its Common Agricultural Policy set the conditions for hill sheep farmers to produce in their practices a version of the rurality represented in the CAP; and the CAP records these mediated effects of its policy in its analysis of the nature of rural spaces within the European Community for which it has to devise further policies.
Can Rural Voices Effect Rural Choices? Contesting Deregulation in New Zealand’s Apple Industry
Authors: McKenna Megan K.L.
Published: March 2003

Recurrent themes in agrifood literature examine the shifting relationships between globalization,regulation and locality. Drawing on lessons from New Zealand’s pipfruit sector and the activities of the rural lobby group United Fruit,this paper evaluates the relative success of local contestation of the terms of neoliberalism and globalization. Arguments are made for reconceptualizing rural phenomena as inexorably linked to wider socio‐economic processes of transformation in New Zealand and elsewhere.
Theory and Practice of Multi‐Product Farms: Farm Butcheries in Umbria
Authors: Ventura Flaminia , Milone Pierluigi
Published: March 2003

This paper addresses the phenomenon of the on‐farm butcher shops that have become increasingly important in the Central Italian region of Umbria over the last decade. Theoretically, farm butcheries are analyzed as multi‐product farms that vertically integrate the primary production, processing and retailing of (mainly)beef and that considerably reduce the cost of each unit produced by jointly producing two or more interrelated goods or services. The practical value of farm butcheries lies in the preservation and valorization of the localChianina cattle breed and of local resources in general, including social capital and landscape. Farm butcheries contribute to an endogenous type of rural development with major macro‐economic returns and the case exemplifies the central position of the multifunctional farm in the renewal of the European countryside. The economic success of farm butcheries is explained in terms of the reduction of economic transaction costs and the achievement of economies of scope. The main conclusion of the paper is that the specificity of assets results in substantial competitive advantages for the organizational form of the multi‐product farm in processes of rural development.
Commodified Meanings, Meaningful Commodities: Re–thinking Production–Consumption Links through the Organic System of Provision
Authors: Guthman Julie
Published: March 2003

Agro–food researchers have yet to systematically theorize how the social life of food intersects with a political economy of food production. Yet without such understanding, activists are unlikely to affect the politics of production in intended ways. It is crucial to understand how the meanings that animate the politics of consumption are translated and distributed as surplus value and rent, and, for that matter, how surplus value and rent value are translated into meanings. This paper is a preliminary attempt to further that understanding by considering these translations in organic food provision. It begins with some recent interventions in conceptualizing taste and then explores their significance in value creation and distribution. It then considers what they offer in understanding the taste for organics specifically. Ultimately, I argue that certain of these tastes present considerable, if different, problems for the commodification of organic food, which are only resolved by a re–making of organic meanings together with unintended distributions of value.
6. Regression Models with Parametrically Weighted Explanatory Variables
Authors: Yamaguchi Kazuo
Published: March 2003

This paper describes linear regression models with parametrically weighted explanatory variables and related logistic regression models that estimate parameters characterizing (1) the effects of weighted variables on the dependent variable and (2) weights for the components of weighted variables. The models also characterize parsimoniously the interaction effects between weighted variables and covariates on the dependent variable by the use of various constraints on parameters. In particular, the models are concerned with testing the significance of variation with covariates in the weights of weighted variables separately from the significance of variation with those covariates in the effects of weighted variables.

The usefulness of these models in sociological research is demonstrated by an illustrative analysis of the class identifications of married working women using education, occupational prestige, and income as three variables weighted between own and spousal attributes, and using year, age, race, part-time–full-time distinction, and employment status as covariates.
Accomplishing Team: Teamwork and Categorisation in Two Community Mental Health Teams
Authors: Griffiths Lesley
Published: March 2003

This paper describes the social organisation of two newly-formed community mental health teams, examining their differing relationship with team psychiatrists and the resulting constitution of team activities. Different ways of accomplishing ‘team’ had consequences for the ways mental illness was categorised and the target population for services was framed. The attendance or non-attendance of psychiatrists at team meetings, and the framing of meetings as ‘allocation’ or ‘review’, critically affected the nature of teamwork. One team took advantage of the absence of the psychiatrist to resist the bureaucratic framing of its task as ‘allocation’, and gained some autonomy by delaying acceptance of ‘inappropriate’ patients onto caseloads. The second team met regularly with its psychiatrist and was allowed a voice in the ‘review’ of cases, but discussions and decisions fell largely under the control of the dominant professional. Transcripts of team meetings are analyzed to show how the two teams develop divergent discursive repertoires, which are then deployed in the categorisation of patients. The team who meet without the psychiatrist attempt to control their workload by developing a relatively exclusionary definition of serious mental illness which excludes the ‘worried well’, while the other team take a more inclusive approach.
Anyone for Tennis? Social Class Differences in Children's Responses to National Curriculum Mathematics Testing
Authors: Cooper Barry , Dunne Máiréad
Published: March 2003

Mathematics is a central part of the school curriculum. Alongside studies in the dominant language of a society, success and failure in the discipline play an important role in the distribution of opportunities to children and young people. Until fairly recently, in England and elsewhere, success in primary school mathematics was achieved by demonstrating a capacity to memorise, reproduce and use relatively simple algorithms. However, in recent years, there has been considerable change in primary school mathematics with an increasing stress being laid, at least rhetorically, on understanding, investigation and the application of mathematics in ‘realistic’ settings. It seems likely that such changes, in so far as they affect the form and content of National Curriculum assessment, will produce changes in who succeeds and who fails, ie in selective processes within schooling.

The paper draws on preliminary results from an ESRC project which is examining National Curriculum assessment in mathematics for 10–11 and 13–14 year-old children in relation to class, gender and ‘ability’. The paper examines the ways in which children from different sociocultural backgrounds approach assessment items which embed mathematics in supposedly ‘realistic’ contexts. Early data from the Key Stage 2 sample of 10–11 year olds will be presented which shows that there does seem be a social class effect in the response of children to ‘realistic’ items – one which leads to some working class children failing to demonstrate competences they have. The paper uses quantitative and qualitative methods, relating its findings to Basil Bernstein's account of sociocultural codes –in particular his theorising of the social distribution of recognition and realisation rules for reading educational contexts – and to Bourdieu's theorising of habitus.
That's Classic! A Gadamerian Defence of the Classic Text in Sociology
Authors: How Alan
Published: March 2003

Many in sociology believe the discipline to be ill served by its classic authors, and that there are now good strategic and cognitive reasons to dispense with the canon. To some, in this more heterogeneous, postmodern world, Marx, Weber and Durkheim have outlived their usefulness and inhibit rather than encourage the growth of sociology. Using Gadamer's hermeneutics as a resource this paper challenges such claims, arguing instead that classic texts are an important and valid product of the human sciences. Classic texts illuminate the real nature of the present by showing how much it still shares with the past. To jettison classic texts would not democratise, but impoverish the discipline.
Against Structure: A Critique of Morphogenetic Social Theory
Authors: King Anthony
Published: March 2003

This article criticises the ontology of Margaret Archer's morphogenetic social theory, arguing that the concept of autonomous social structure on which she bases this social theory is contradictory. Against the ontological contradictions of Archer's work, the article tries to re-habilitate the interpretive tradition which Archer dismisses, showing that only this tradition provides a logically coherent and methodologically useful social ontology, which consists only of individuals and their social relations.
Late Modernity and the Dynamics of Quasification: The Case of the Themed Restaurant
Authors: Beardsworth Alan , Bryman Alan
Published: March 2003

The themed restaurant is an example of a process of theming which is characteristic of many of the leisure experiences of contemporary society. This paper seeks to trace the origins and prototypes of the themed restaurant to provide a typology of theming devices and to offer an analysis of theming strategies. The various perspectives on theming as a cultural device are discussed, and the concept of quasification is introduced in order to advance our theoretical understanding of the theming process in its broader cultural context. Specifically, it is argued that the techniques of quasification entail the active and knowing involvement of both those who engineer themed settings and those who purchase participation in them. Late modernity, it is argued, has an unprecedented capacity for creating quasified experiences as antidotes to the tedium of its mundane everyday settings.
Bigamy: Neither Love Nor Marriage, but a Threat to the Nation?
Authors: Grover Chris , Soothill Keith
Published: March 2003

In a computer search of 18 national newspapers over a three-year period (1993–1995) 420 mentions of bigamy were identified. 110 items (or 26 per cent) referred to 26 current criminal cases involving bigamy. Seven cases attracted 70 per cent of the coverage. The comments of the presiding judge were widely reported in five of these cases together with titillating detail. Two other cases included comments by judges. Using Phoenix's (1996) distinction between threats to the nation-state from ‘inside’ and ‘outside’, the analysis indicates that two issues of wider socio-political importance – familism and immigration – were central to the judges' comments reported in the press and produced an important counterpoise to the titillating features of these cases. It is argued that the newspaper reporting of bigamy constructs bigamists as being a threat to Britain from ‘inside’ to the institution of marriage, while the threat from ‘outside’ is from minority ethnic men marrying female bigamists to gain residential status in Britain. It is the latter challenge which brings the most significant condemnation.
Death and Work in Britain
Authors: Tombs Steve
Published: March 2003

Official figures indicate that there were 302 fatal occupational injuries in Britain in 1996/97. This paper is a sustained critique of the means by which this ‘headline figure’ is reached. Drawing upon other, more or less recoverable, officially collected data on fatal injuries it demonstrates that there are at least five times more fatal occupational injuries during this time period. It then considers various anomalies and inconsistencies within the legally constituted (and recently revised) categories of data collection, the effect of which is to exclude indeterminate numbers of occupational fatalities, not least to members of the public, to the self-employed, and to other groups of workers. Finally, the paper considers some social processes of under-reporting, whereby occupational fatalities are not recorded in official data. The paper concludes that: fatal injury data is grossly incomplete, and requires work of reconstruction; the actual number of fatalities incurred through work in Britain at the end of the 1990s represents a largely obscured social problem; while there remain questions about both the reliability and validity of official fatality data, it is important that this data is incorporated within sociological analysis, albeit sceptically.
Eating In: Home, Consumption and Identity
Authors: Valentine Gill
Published: March 2003

Food is perhaps one of the most mundane and taken for granted parts of our everyday life, yet the ways we think about shopping, cooking and eating are actually intensively reflexive. This paper uses the example of food to explore questions of identity in relation to the specific cultural location of ‘the home’. Using case study examples the paper illustrates some of the complex ways in which identities, throughout the lifecourse, are produced, articulated and contested through food consumption and the spatial dynamics of cooking and eating. In doing so the paper demonstrates that households, rather than being single units of food consumption, can be sites of multiple and sometimes contradictory consumption practices and that it is necessary to understand how patterns of eating are negotiated and contested within households in order to understand how the home functions as a ‘consumption site’.
Driven to Action: The British Motorcycle Lobby in the 1990s
Authors: McDonald-Walker Suzanne
Published: March 2003

The creation of the first riders'-rights organization [RRO] at Mallory Park in 1960 heralded a transformation among Britain's motorcyclists. Until this time, motorcycling was exclusively a practical and/or social activity, the main organized expression of which was the Auto Cycle Union; a sports-oriented organization dedicated primarily to racing. However, since that time the riders'-rights organizations – that is, organizations dedicated not to motorcycles but to the political rights of motorcyclists – have expanded both nationally and on an international basis.
Life beyond the Screen: Embodiment and Identity through the Internet
Authors: Hardey Michael
Published: March 2003

This paper explores on-line and off-line identities and how relationship are formed and negotiated within internet environments that offer opportunities to meet people on-line and move into relationship off-line. To do this it draws on an analysis of users experiences of internet dating sites that are designed for those who wish meet others in the hope of forming an intimate relationship. Locating analyses in the context of the individualized sociability of late modernity, it is argued that virtual interactions may be shaped by and grounded in the social, bodily and cultural experiences of users. It is shown that disembodied anonymity that characterizes the internet acts as a foundation for the building of trust and establishing real world relationship rather than the construction of fantasy selves. The paper concludes with a discussion of the wider significance of this for understanding disembodied identities and interactions and the impact of cyberspace on off-line sociability.
Free Agent or ‘Conscious Automaton’? Contrasting Interpretations of the Individual in Spencer's Writing on Social and Moral Life
Authors: Offer John
Published: March 2003

Herbert Spencer remains an important and intriguing figure in thinking about political, social and moral matters. At present his writings in relation to idealist thought, social policy, sociology and ethics are undergoing reassessment. This article is concerned with some recent interpretations of Spencer on individuals in social life. It looks in some detail at Spencer's work on psychology and sociology as well as on ethics, seeking to establish how Spencer understood people as social individuals. In particular the neglect of Spencer's denial of freedom of the will is identified as a problem in some recent interpretations. One of his contemporary critics, J.E. Cairnes, charged that Spencer's own theory of social evolution left even Spencer himself the status of only a ‘conscious automaton’. This article, drawing on a range of past and present interpretative discussions of Spencer, seeks to show that Spencerian individuals are psychically and socially so constituted as to be only indirectly responsive to moral suasion, even to that of his own Principles of Ethics as he himself acknowledged. Whilst overtly reconstructionist projects to develop a liberal utilitarianism out of Spencer to enliven political and philosophical debate for today are worthwhile – dead theorists have uses – care needs to be taken that the original context and its concerns with the processes associated with innovation (and decay) in social life are not thereby eclipsed, the more so since in some important respects they have recently received little systematic attention even though the issues have contemporary relevance in sociology.
Rural Communities and Well-Being: A Good Place to Grow Up?
Authors: Glendinning Anthony , Nuttall Mark , Hendry Leo , Kloep Marion , Wood Sheila
Published: March 2003

This study looks at young people's accounts of life in communities in rural northern Scotland, and considers in what ways affective and social aspects of community are bound up with well-being, over and above young people's concerns for the future, rural youth transitions, and out-migration. Interviews were held with 15–18 year-olds in four study areas (16 groups, N = 60+) and a parallel survey of 11–16 year-olds was conducted in eight study areas (N = 2400+). Themes to emerge from the interviews included: opportunities locally, the future and staying on, as well as local amenities and services; but older teenagers also spoke at length about their social lives, family and social networks, and their community, both as close-knit and caring and as intrusive and controlling. Rural communities were seen as good places in childhood, but not necessarily for young people. In parallel with that, the survey data paints a picture where feelings of support, control, autonomy, and attachment were all associated with emotional well-being. Importantly, links between emotional well-being and practical, material concerns were outweighed by positive identifications of community as close-knit and caring; and equally, by negative identifications as intrusive and constraining, where the latter was felt more strongly by young women. Certainly, beliefs about future employment and educational opportunities were also linked to well-being, but that was over and above, and independently of, affective and social aspects of community life. Additionally, migration intentions were also bound up with sense of self and well-being, and with feelings about community life; and links between thoughts about leaving and community life as controlling and constraining were, yet again, felt more strongly by young women. Thus, gender was a key dimension affecting young people's feelings about their communities with significant implications for well-being, and out-migration. The study illustrates the importance of understanding the experiences young people have of growing up in rural areas, and how they evaluate those experiences: particularly, how life in rural communities matters for young people's well-being; and especially, for young women.
Recall Bias in Self‐reported Childhood Health: Differences by Age and Educational Level
Authors: Van De Mheen H. , Stronks K. , Looman C.W.N. , Mackenbach J.P.
Published: March 2003

This study examines the impact of recall bias on self‐reported childhood health. In a population of people aged from 25 to 74 years, childhood health was assessed retrospectively to explore its influence on socio‐economic inequalities in adult health. Data were obtained from a postal survey in the baseline of a prospective cohort‐study (the Longitudinal Study on Socio‐Economic Health Differences in The Netherlands). Childhood health was measured as self‐reported periods of severe disease in childhood. Relationships between childhood health on the one hand and adult educational level on the other were analysed using logistic regression models.

A negative association between childhood health problems and adult educational level was found in the youngest age group (25–34 years). In the older age groups, however, a lower adult socio‐economic status was not clearly associated with more health problems in childhood. In view of what we know about socio‐economic inequalities in childhood health in the past, it is likely that the lack of association between educational level and childhood health in the older age groups is (partly) caused by a recall bias. Using simple questions on self‐reported childhood health problems, the measurement of childhood health in older age groups will be biased by differential recall between socio‐economic groups. Other possibilities in the use of retrospective data in studying childhood health problems should be explored.
Medicines and the maintenance of ordinariness in the household management of childhood asthma
Authors: Prout Alan , Hayes Lesley , Gelder Lesley
Published: March 2003

This paper applies and extends the ‘adaption’ perspective on chronic illness by arguing that, in the case of moderate child‐hood asthma, an important aspect of the process may be found in the ways in which children and parents construct a sense of their ordinariness. It is suggested that medicines may play a role in this process. Reporting an intensive and detailed qualitative study of the management strategies of nine English families, it is shown that household members did not generally regard asthma as a major problem. Regular medication, usually in the form of inhaled drugs, was their main response. Few other strategies were followed and little attention was paid to the non‐medicinal preventive actions recommended in asthma management guidelines and educational material. Parents’ and children’s accounts suggest that they were involved not only in managing a disease but also in maintaining a sense of their own ordinariness. Paradoxically, medicines, especially inhalers, were the main resource for accomplishing this goal because they supported the ordinariness of the child and the family far more readily than other preventive measures.
Challenging medicine? Bodybuilding, drugs and risk
Authors: Monaghan Lee
Published: March 2003

This paper draws on data from a qualitative study of bodybuilding and drug‐taking. It discusses the ambiguous role of medicine as a source of knowledge and expertise among participants who systematically disavow medical pronouncements on the uses and dangers of ‘physique‐enhancing’ drugs. Empirical data on perceptions of the medical profession, risk, and bodybuilders’ various sources of ethno‐scientific knowledge, suggest that medicine is simply one ‘authority’ among many in the construction of the self and body within late modernity. These ethno‐graphic observations correlate with sociological claims that medical orthodoxy is currently being subjected to an external critique and that implicit trust in both the individuals who practice medicine and the underlying system of knowledge may have been weakening.