bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The potential importance of bacterial processes in regulating rate of lake acidification1,2
Authors: Kelly C.A. , Rudd John W. M. , Cook R. B. , Schindler D.W.
Published: March 2010

Rates of microbial reduction of O2, Fe3+, Mn4+, NO3−, and SO42−, and total generation of CO2 and CH4 were measured in the hypolimnia of three Canadian Shield lakes. Methanogenesis accounted for 72–80% of anoxic carbon generation, while sulfate reduction contributed 16–20%. The remainder of anoxic carbon generation (2–8%) originated from all of the other processes combined (nitrate, iron, and manganese reduction).

In lakes affected by acid deposition, inputs of sulfate and nitrate will increase, and it is expected that reducing power normally going to methane production will be diverted to nitrate and sulfate reduction. The last two reduction reactions can result in alkalinity production, whereas methane production does not. A model was developed to predict the significance of hypolimnetic alkalinity production which could result from these reactions in lakes with known hypolimnetic reducing power (methane production). The model showed that the hypolimnia of two ELA lakes which have been made eutrophic artificially could potentially produce enough persistent alkalinity to neutralize “typical” acid deposition, while a lake that was not eutrophic could not. Besides trophic state, other factors important in determining a lake’s capability for hypolimnetic alkalinity production were watershed area: surface area ratio, the watershed retentions of H+, SO42−, NO3−, and NH4+, and the degree of precipitation of FeS in the sediment.
Distribution of phototrophic microorganisms in the anaerobic and microaerophilic strata of Lake Vechten (The Netherlands). Pigment analysis and role in primary production
Authors: Steenbergen C. L. M. , Korthals H. J.
Published: March 2010

Dense populations of photoautotrophic bacteria (total chlorophyll concentrations up to 200 mg·m−3) were found sequentially layered in meta‐ and upper hypolimnion during summer stratification of Lake Vechten (Netherlands). Pigment analysis by chromatographic and spectrophotometric techniques and phase microscopy were used to reveal the structure and relative seasonal abundance of the populations. The predominant bacteria were identified as members of the genera Synechococcus, Chloronema, Chromatium, and Thiopedia. Unidentified brown Chlorobiaceae also were present. Maximal development of the populations was found in late August and September. The primary production, distribution of sulfide, oxygen, chlorophyllous pigments and ATP, and temperature profiles were determined through the summer. Oxygenic (algal) and anoxygenic (bacterial) photosynthesis were distinguished by using the inhibitor DCMU. The phototrophic sulfur bacteria accounted for 3.9–17.5% of the total daily primary production. The contribution of bacterial photosynthesis to the total pelagic annual primary production of the lake was 3.6%. The main factors determining the growth of photosynthetic sulfur bacteria in Lake Vechten are light and sulfide concentration.
The physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of a stratified, saline, sulfide lake in Palau1
Authors: Hamner W. M. , Gilmer R. W. , Hamner P. P.
Published: March 2010

Eil Malk Jellyfish Lake in Palau is a 5‐ha, 30‐m deep, meromictic saline lake, stratified, with anoxic hypolimnion, damped, delayed tides, and no heat accumulation. The top 15 m are oxygenated, nutrient‐poor but turbid, with high primary productivity and large planktonic populations of only five metazoans: the medusae Mastigias and Aurelia, the copepods Oithona and Acrocalanus, and silverside fish, Pranesus. At the chemocline a floating bacterial plate dominated by photosynthetic purple bacteria (Chromatium) degrades and solubilizes almost all particulate material and absorbs all sunlight. Below the plate the anoxic, clear water contains extremely high levels of NH4+, H2S, and PO43−. Sediments are primarily undisturbed fish fecal pellets full of copepod exoskeletons. The lake is stable, aseasonal, and shows no obvious cycles of the populations. An unusual horizontal and vertical swimming behavior of Mastigias appears related to light and to the nutrient requirements of its symbiotic zooxanthellae. Other zooplankton show normal vertical diurnal migration patterns. Facultafive schooling by Pranesus reflects the absence of predators in the lake.
Dissolved inorganic nitrogen flux in symbiotic and nonsymbiotic medusae1
Authors: Muscatine L. , Marian R. E.
Published: March 2010

Symbiotic Mastigias from Eil Malk Jellyfish Lake and Palau lagoon take up and retain ammonium during both day and night. Uptake is due to symbiotic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae). Nitrate is not taken up, and is barely detectable in the environment. Nonsymbiotic Aurelia in the same lake excrete rather than take up ammonium. Mastigias migrates vertically repeatedly at night, periodically visiting the nutrient‐rich chemocline at about 15 m where, together with that taken up at ambient concentrations, the animals may take up enough ammonium to satisfy the total daily nitrogen requirement of their symbiotic algae. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that repeated vertical migration by Mastigias is a behavioral adaptation in the animal that facilitates nutrient acquisition by its algal symbionts.
The effect of food concentration on swimming patterns, feeding behavior, ingestion, assimilation, and respiration by Daphnia1
Authors: Porter Karen G. , Gerritsen Jeroen , Orcutt John D.
Published: March 2010

Swimming patterns, feeding behaviors, and ingestion, filtering, assimilation, and respiration rates were measured for Daphnia magna in food concentrations from 0 to 106 Chlamydomonas reinhardi cells·cm−3, equivalent to 0–20 mg C·liter −1. A Holling type 2 functional response curve or an Ivlev model without a threshold appear to be biologically meaningful descriptions of Daphnia feeding response to different food concentrations. Daphnia has no feeding threshold or reduced filtering activity at low concentrations such as are predicted by optimal foraging models. Above the incipient limiting concentration, constant ingestion rates and an over‐collection of food result in increased rejection rates. These behaviors may cause high respiratory rates and reduced net assimilation rates at the highest food concentration. Daphnia does not orient to or alter swimming patterns in response to algal patches.
Mannitol‐fermenting bacteria as evidence for export from kelp beds
Authors: Koop K. , Carter R. A. , Newell R. C.
Published: March 2010

Mannitol‐fermenting bacteria are used to trace export from kelp beds along the west coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa. Under active upwelling conditions these bacteria are found in the water 4.5 km offshore and are probably exported to a distance of at least 8–9 km. During the relaxation phase of upwelling the kelp bed water is contained in a narrow band close to shore and no mannitolytic bacteria are found 4.5 km offshore.
Preliminary observations on the effects of flooding and desiccation upon the net photosynthetic rates of high intertidal estuarine sediments1
Authors: Holmes Robert W. , Mahall Bruce E.
Published: March 2010

Measurements of gaseous CO2 exchange from high intertidal estuarine sediments revealed that net photosynthetic rates of moist, unflooded sediments were maximal. Flooding of moist sediments with 1–2 mm of agitated seawater reduced net photosynthetic rates by 48–66%. When moist sediments lost 10–15% of their water content CO2 uptake decreased, and high rates of CO2 evolution were observed later as water losses continued.
Zooplankton avoidance and reduced grazing responses to Gymnodinium splendens (Dinophyceae)1
Authors: Fiedler Paul C.
Published: March 2010

A dense subsurface layer of Gymnodinium splendens, a feature often observed in coastal waters off southern California, was actively avoided by macrozooplankton. Filtration rates, measured by uptake of tracer amounts of radiocarbon‐labeled diatoms, and ingestion rates, measured by gut fullness, of some herbivorous species were significantly reduced within the layer. These behavioral responses may help explain the formation and persistence of dinoflagellate blooms such as red tides in coastal waters often dominated by diatoms with higher maximum growth rates.
The magnetic susceptibility of sedimenting material trapped in Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland, and its erosional significance1
Authors: Dearing J. A. , Flower R. J.
Published: March 2010

The magnetic susceptibility of sedimenting material trapped at two sites in Lough Neagh has been measured over 1 year. The magnitude of susceptibility in one of the traps correlates with rainfall in the catchment, suggesting a link between channel erosion and the magnetic properties of eroded sediment.
Determination of total reduced sulfur in natural waters1
Authors: Kijowski Wojciech , Steudler Paul A.
Published: March 2010

A method has been developed for determining small amounts of reduced sulfur in water (25–600 µg S·liter–1) that is very specific and free from interferences. It is based on alkaline digestion of a sample using Raney nickel as a reductant. Hydrochloric acid is added to the digestion mixture to liberate hydrogen sulfide, which is trapped in a zinc acetate solution and then determined spectrophotometrically as ethylene blue. The method affords excellent recoveries for the reduced sulfur compounds tested. Sulfate and most sulfate esters do not interfere, so that the method is useful in seawater where sulfate is abundant.
The chemistry of the Delaware estuary. General considerations1
Authors: Sharp Jonathan H. , Culberson Charles H. , Church Thomas M.
Published: March 2010

Many properties were measured in the Delaware estuary from freshwater to its mouth (30‰ salinity). Distinctive mixing patterns in property‐salinity plots illustrate predictable behavior for different parameters. For example, alkalinity always shows an expected positive linear relationship and dissolved organic carbon a negative linear relationship (indicative of conservative mixing). In contrast, phosphate shows a nonlinear plot suggestive of an estuarine source, nitrate a nonlinear plot suggestive of biochemical reactivity, and dissolved iron a nonlinear plot indicative of geochemical reactivity.

The upper estuary has very high levels of nutrients, especially nitrate (near 200 µM), and a measurable depletion of surface water dissolved oxygen (equivalent to an apparent oxygen utilization of 100–250 µg‐atoms O·liter−1 in winter and summer). However, oxygen levels appear to be consistently above 35% saturation in the upper estuary and are near saturation throughout most of the estuary. The high nutrients do not cause algal blooms in the upper estuary; instead primary productivity appears maximal in the lower estuary. It is postulated that high suspended sediment in the upper estuary causes severe light limitation and as a result moderate utilization of nutrients sustains moderate productivity throughout the estuary and throughout the year.
Entrainment by bottom currents in Lake Erie
Authors: Ivey G. N. , Boyce F. M.
Published: March 2010

Previous studies of the central basin of Lake Erie have indicated, on the basis lakewide budgets of heat and dissolved oxygen, that the thickness of the hypolimnion and the interaction of the hypolimnion with the overlying fluid are important factors governing the dissolved oxygen concentration in the near‐bottom water. Data collected during an intensive field program in 1979 contain an example of an event during which both the thickness and temperature of the hypolimnion increase due to an erosion of the thermocline from below. This thickening of the hypolimnion requires two conditions. First, the thermocline region, or metalimnion, must be thick enough so that the effects of the energetic surface mixing processes are confined to the upper portion of the thermocline. And second, the currents in the thin hypolimnion must be strong enough to entrain overlying metalimnion water down into the hypolimnion. An analysis of the current meter data suggests the source of turbulent energy driving the mixing is shearing stresses at the bottom. During the entrainment event, the contribution to bottom dissolved oxygen supply is about 10% of the daily demand.
Cell volumes, maximal growth rates of unicellular algae and ciliates, and the role of ciliates in the marine pelagial1,2
Authors: Banse Karl
Published: March 2010

A review of growth rates of diatoms and dinoflagellates in light‐saturated, nutrient‐replete cultures at 20°C confirms weak dependence on cell volume or mass. These maximal (intrinsic) rates are not linearly related to surface area or surface‐to‐volume ratio of the cells. The growth of most diatoms is materially faster than that of dinoflagellates; other algae fall in between or below the dinoflagellates. Small ciliates have appreciably higher intrinsic growth rates than algae of the same cell volume. The average food consumption per ciliate in the marine pelagic realm is inferred to be very low, so that the realized specific growth rates are much smaller than the intrinsic potentials. Also, a previously postulated refuge from predation, afforded by small size, is extended down to about 10‐µm3 cell volume.
Conversion of the particulate fraction of seaweed detritus to bacterial biomass
Authors: Robinson J. D. , Mann K. H. , Novitsky J. A.
Published: March 2010

The efficiency with which particulate organic carbon from seaweed detritus was transformed to bacterial carbon was determined in the laboratory by comparing changes in bacterial numbers with changes in the organic carbon content of detritus in incubation experiments lasting between 2 and 36 days. In general, the efficiencies were highest (43%) in the shortest incubations and declined with increasing length of experiment to a mean of 22% at 36 days. Nitrogen enrichment of the cultures accelerated decomposition and increased bacterial abundance but did not lead to higher conversion efficiencies than those observed without enrichment. Of the initial detrital carbon, 54% was rapidly leached into the seawater and a further 23% was removed by microbial activity. The remaining material was relatively refractory and had a low C:N ratio. The results indicate that the C:N ratio of detritus is not a good indication of its nutritional value.
Diel fluctuations of DOC generated by algae in a piedmont stream1
Authors: Kaplan Louis A. , Bott Thomas L.
Published: March 2010

Diel fluctuations in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were measured in White Clay Creek, a piedmont stream in SE Pennsylvania. DOC concentrations, measured on 16 days from late March to early June and on 2 days in early November, 1978 and 1979, showed rapid increases from predawn minima to late afternoon maxima and gradual decreases after sunset. Concentrations increased during a single day by as much as 40% of the daily minimum. These measurements were made during periods of constant discharge and were not related to volume of flow or changes in groundwater DOC concentrations. Laboratory and microcosm experiments suggested that benthic algae excreted most of the DOM and that bacterial uptake modified its concentration and composition. When the diel pulse was strongest, net algal DOC excretion accounted for 20% of the total DOC exported from the watershed that day. Additional data show that the 14C method of measuring algal excretion is quantitatively and qualitatively inaccurate for periphyton incubated for 2–4 h.
The nitrogen and phosphorus dependence of algal biomass in lakes: An empirical and theoretical analysis1
Authors: Smith Val H.
Published: March 2010

An analysis of mean growing season concentrations of chlorophyll, total phosphorus (TP), and total nitrogen (TN) in 228 north latitude lakes confirms previous observations that chlorophyll yield is dependent both on the phosphorus concentration and on the TN:TP ratio. Of two modified chlorophyll models which depend explicitly on both nitrogen and phosphorus developed and tested, one, a multiple regression model, appears to greatly reduce the error of chlorophyll prediction in lakes. A theoretical framework is presented which provides an explanation for the observed effects of N:P ratios.
Family expectations and transition experiences for young adults with severe disabilities: does syndrome matter?
Authors: Blacher Jan , Kraemer Bonnie , Howell Erica
Published: March 2010

The differential impact of young adult diagnosis on families during the period of transition from school to adult life was examined. Participants were parents of 246 young adults with severe learning disability aged 18‐26. Young adults were classified into four diagnostic groups: autism (N = 30), Down's syndrome (N = 68), cerebral palsy (N = 95) and an undifferentiated learning disability group (N = 53). Research questions pertained to parent expectations about their young adults' transition to living and working environments post high school. Parental satisfaction and worries were also assessed. The results indicated more community expectations of work for young adults with Down's syndrome, and more restrictive expectations for young adults with autism, including more expectations that young adults with autism would move out of the family home into a residential environment. Parents of young adults with autism also worried significantly more about various aspects of transition than other parent groups.
Caring for a child with autism: a personal perspective
Authors: Russ Marina
Published: March 2010

Marina Russ is a community psychiatric nurse in a specialist service for adults with learning disabilities and mental health needs. Here she gives a personal account of caring for a child with autism and learning disabilities, and the associated challenges and rewards. She ends the account with some learning points for professionals in their interactions with parents.
Adapting The Incredible Years, an evidence‐based parenting programme, for families involved in the child welfare system
Authors: Webster‐Stratton Carolyn , Reid M
Published: March 2010

Families referred to child welfare for maltreatment and neglect are frequently mandated to attend parenting programmes. Evidence‐based parenting programmes (EBPs) are under‐utilised or not delivered with fidelity for this population. The Incredible Years (IY) parenting programme is an EPB that has been proven to reduce harsh parenting, increase positive discipline and nurturing parenting, reduce conduct problems and improve children's social competence. There is also promising preliminary evidence that IY is an effective intervention for families involved in child welfare and for foster parents. This article describes how the updated IY parenting basic programme is delivered with fidelity to this population.
Qualitative Data Analysis: Technologies and Representations
Authors: Coffey Amanda , Beverley Holbrook , Paul Atkinson
Published: March 2010

In this paper we address a number of contemporary themes concerning the analysis of qualitative data and the ethnographic representation of social realities. A contrast is drawn. On the one hand, a diversity of representational modes and devices is currently celebrated, in response to various critiques of conventional ethnographic representation. On the other hand, the widespread influence of computer- assisted qualitative data analysis is promoting convergence on a uniform mode of data analysis and representation (often justified with reference to grounded theory). We note the ironic contrast between these two tendencies, the heterodox and the orthodox, in contemporary qualitative research. We go on to suggest that there exist alternatives that reflect both the diversity of representational approaches, and the broader possibilities of contemporary computing. We identify the technical and intellectual possibilities of hypertext software as offering just one such synthesis.
The Digital Revolution in Qualitative Research: Working with Digital Audio Data through Atlas. Ti
Authors: Gibson Will , Callery Peter , Campbell Malcolm , Hall Andy , Richards Dave
Published: March 2010

Modern versions of Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) are enabling the analysis of audio sound files instead of relying solely on text-based analysis. Along with other developments in computer technologies such as the proliferation of digital recording devices and the potential for using streamed media in online academic publication, this innovation is increasing the possibilities of systematically using media-rich, naturalistic data in place of transcribed ‘de-naturalised’ forms. This paper reports on a project assessing online learning materials that used Atlas.ti software to analyse sound files, and it describes the problems faced in gathering, analysing and using this data for report writing. It concludes that there are still serious barriers to the full and effective integration of audio data into qualitative research: the absence of ‘industry standard’ recording technology, the underdevelopment of audio interfaces in Atlas.ti (as a key CAQDAS package), and the conventional approach to data use in many online publication formats all place serious restrictions on the integrated use of this data. Nonetheless, it is argued here that there are clear benefits in pushing for resolutions to these problems as the use of this naturalistic data through digital formats may help qualitative researchers to overcome some long-standing methodological issues: in particular, the ability to overcome the reliance on data transcription rather than ‘natural’ data, and the possibility of implementing research reports that facilitate a more transparent use of ‘reusable’ data, are both real possibilities when using these digital technologies, which could substantially change the shape of qualitative research practice.
The Diversity of State Benefit Dependent Lone Mothers: The Use of Type Categories as an Analytical Tool
Authors: Klett-Davies Martina
Published: March 2010

This article provides an empirical examination of how lone mothers who receive state benefits in Germany and Britain create meaning with regards to mothering and state dependency. It uses the concept of individualisation as it requires women to negotiate their own lives. But the concept of individualisation is limited as it insinuates a convergence in men's and women's work identities and aspirations and is in danger of reducing women's identity to their ‘family-work’ preferences that does not encompass the complexity of their lives.

The article has both a methodological claim and a substantive claim: Methodologically, it explores how new type categories can be used as an analytical tool to help us understand how lone mothers create meaning and to make sense of the differences between the mothers’ complex identities. Substantively, these type categories demonstrate that there are great variations and dynamics in mothers’ identities despite their state dependency. Based on lone mothers’ perceived choices and constraints they are categorised as pioneers, copers or strugglers. The pioneers view their situation as an opportunity to construct their lives actively in non-traditional ways. In contrast, the coper and the struggler types perceive a lack of choices and tend to have traditional gender role values. While copers view their situation as temporary and improvable, strugglers feel overwhelmed by constraints and perceive themselves to have no choices at all. This article discusses the construction and the characteristics of these categories while detailed case studies bring each type category to life and give them more substance. The data analysis also shows that besides values, lone mothers’ structural background as well as the number and age of their children seems to be related to lone mothers’ creation of meaning.
Nice and Tidy: Translation and Representation
Authors: Temple Bogusia
Published: March 2010

Across many disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, philosophy, cultural studies and sociolinguistics, writers and researchers are concerned with how language is used to construct representations of people in written and oral accounts. There is also increasing interest in cross-disciplinary approaches to language and representation in research. Within health, social care and housing research there is a rapidly growing volume of writing on, and sometimes with, people whose first language is not English. However, much empirical research in these fields remains at the level of ‘findings’ about groups of people with the issue of how they are represented remaining unexamined. In this article I discuss some of the different ways researchers have looked at issues of translation and representation across languages. As I show, some researchers have attempted to ignore or by-pass these issues in their research, some have given up the task as impossible and others have attempted the impossible. I argue that, although there can be no single ‘correct’ way for researchers to represent people who speak different languages, choices about how to do this have epistemological and ethical implications.
Tsunami Diplomacy: Will the 26 December, 2004 Tsunami Bring Peace to the Affected Countries?
Authors: Kelman Ilan
Published: March 2010

Disaster diplomacy examines whether or not disasters induce international cooperation amongst enemy countries. The 26 December, 2004 tsunami around the Indian Ocean impacted more than a dozen countries, many with internal or external conflicts, thereby providing an opportunity to explore how the same event affects different countries in different disaster diplomacy contexts. Two groups of case studies are presented: those from which few disaster diplomacy outcomes are likely and those which warrant monitoring and investigation. Indonesian tsunami diplomacy is used as a case study for further discussion, in terms of both American-Indonesian relations and the conflict in Aceh. Further work is suggested in the tsunami's aftermath in order to understand better the disaster diplomacy outcomes which are feasible and why they rarely yield positive, lasting results.
Towards an Emotionally Conscious Social Theory
Authors: Davetian Benet
Published: March 2010

This article attempts to contribute to the on-going discussion regarding the ‘future of sociology and social theory’ by suggesting that classical and contemporary social theories have yet to provide satisfactory accounts of the emotional components of human society. Following a discussion of how emotions have been downplayed in classical and contemporary theory, evidence is presented in support of a sociology that would include the study of emotions as part of broader studies of the social. A central proposition of this article is that the harmonization of studies of ‘micro’ and ‘macro’ realities would facilitate the development of a systems theory that neither excludes diversity nor minimizes the immutable emotional needs of individuals and their social systems. In support of the above argument, the author presents some new evidence pointing to the primacy of the human emotions across cultural boundaries.
Sociology, Science and Sustainability: Developing Relationships in Scotland
Authors: Blackstock Kirsty L. , Kirk Elizabeth A. , Reeves Alison D.
Published: March 2010

This paper considers the application of the sociological imagination during the analysis of data collected during an ethnographic study of an environmental regulator, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). SEPA is tasked with implementing the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) in Scotland, which will radically alter the regulation of water use. Applying a sociological imagination allowed the researcher to advocate for a more interdisciplinary and equitable understanding of sustainable water use when feeding back initial research results at the end of the data collection period. The researchers introduced socialised definitions of the environment, which linked social justice and ecological concerns. These insights provided a challenge to the traditional bio-physical science focus of the organisational participants, for whom sustainability is a relatively new addition to their duties. The paper concludes by discussing the importance of developing these interdisciplinary relationships in the future.
Market Forces, Choice and Diversity in Education: The Early Impact
Authors: Gorard S.
Published: March 2010

This paper provides an overview of some of the findings of a recently completed study of school choice in 33 local schools which may be indicative of the effect of an increase in the marketisation of schools. Since it is unlikely that debate over parental choice can be settled by theoretical argument alone and it may also be too early to understand the full implications of the relevant recent governmental reforms in the UK, results from research in other sectors of education can be used in the interim. The research presented here is partly based upon a limited market model of cheap fee-paying schools. This market has been established for a long time, and so some of the benefits or damage caused by markets in education may already be observable in operation.
The Gap and how to Mind It: Intersections of Class and Sexuality (Research Note)
Authors: Taylor Yvette
Published: March 2010

This research note is grounded in the findings of my PhD thesis ‘Working-class lesbians: classed in a classless climate’ (2004), which examines the significance of class and sexuality in the lives of women who self-identify themselves as working-class and lesbian, who are necessarily, unavoidably, painfully and pleasurably, living out the intersection of class and sexuality. I aim to offer an oversight of the project, taking account of the material and subjective inputs into working-class lesbian identity. Drawing on data collected from a series of interviews I will highlight the interconnections between class and sexuality and the role they play in relation to identities and experiences. By drawing on and critically evaluating previous work in the field and related fields I will illustrate the various ways in which working-class lesbians may be seen to constitute a gap in the literature. Hoping to address this gap and this invisibility, I will examine the ways in which class and sexuality are negotiated and represented by my interviewees. I contrast lived experience with notions of a ‘queer identity’ and the material constraints imposed upon the normative expression of identity.
A Child of Its Time: Hybridic Perspectives on Othering in Sociology
Authors: Stanley Liz
Published: March 2010

Responding to John Scott's (2005) ‘Sociology and its others’, the idea of hybridic sociologies is developed, Mills’ ideas about ‘the sociological imagination’ are discussed, Scott's proposal for a core curriculum countered with some suggestions for extended in-depth disciplinary debate about an intellectually expansionist programme for UK sociology, and responses to these suggestions as well as to the broad argument are welcomed.
Exploring Intersections of Employment and Ethnicity Amongst British Pakistani Young Men
Authors: Ramji Hasmita
Published: March 2010

This article draws upon research conducted amongst young British Pakistani men in Lancashire to explore how different boundaries of British Pakistani identity are being constructed. It focuses on the significance of employment within Pakistani men's inter and intra-ethnic peer group relations and the ways in which the social dynamics that underlie those relations provide the context for understanding the particular nature and form that ethnicity takes. It does this through the narratives of professional and non-professional men. The article has two aims, firstly it seeks to contribute to the literature on understanding ethnic identity by looking at boundaries as they manifest themselves and suggesting one way in which ethnicity can be understood within a specific social context. Secondly, in so doing it hopes to extend research focus on British Pakistanis away from conventional agendas.
Sociological Futures and the Sociology of Work
Authors: Strangleman Tim
Published: March 2010

This essay is a response to the call for a discussion about future trends in sociology by focusing broadly on the sub-discipline of work and employment. In doing so the piece directly engages with earlier interventions made by John Scott (2005) and Gayle Letherby (2005) in Sociological Research Online. It examines the current state of the sociology of work by charting its foundation and subsequent development. It suggests that there is currently a problem in the area caused in part by intellectual trends and fragmentation. It argues that those sociologists working in the field need to engage collectively in a reflective process to refocus the subject combining elements from its ‘golden age’ as well as from more contemporary sources.
Family and Peer Networks in Intimate and Sexual Relationships Amongst Teenagers in a Multicultural Area of East London
Authors: Sinha Shamser , Curtis Katherine , Jayakody Amanda , Viner Russell , Roberts Helen
Published: March 2010

The Minister for Children has recently suggested on the basis of research evidence that parents need to talk more to their children about sex in order to encourage them to start sex later and improve contraceptive use, with a view to reducing teenage conceptions.

We report here on a mixed-methods project funded by the Teenage Pregnancy Unit and the Department of Health which draws on accounts of young people aged 15-18 from diverse ethnic groups in East London describing their inclination (or otherwise) to talk with parents, other family members, and peers about sex and intimate relationships.

Recent sociological research describes diversity in sexual relationships, family practices and ways in which people love and care for each other, but work addressing ethnicity in these areas has been less well developed.

Drawing on research into ethnicity, youth and identity formation in an urban multicultural area, our work indicates that Black African, Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani young people living in East London talk to a range of people for support in addition to, or instead of parents. Thus, the siblings and extended families to whom they go for advice may well have a role in health promotion as may existing peer networks.

The findings we report here reflect cultural diversity, re-working of cultural traditions and emerging youth identities in multicultural areas. Whilst there may be benefits in some families from more open talk between parents and children about sex, our work suggests that this could helpfully be supplemented by an increased appreciation of what cultural diversity and youth networks can offer.
Gender Matters? Three Cohorts of Women Talking about Role Reversal
Authors: Pilcher J.
Published: March 2010

Cohort is an important predictor of gender-role attitudes, as a number of surveys have shown. In this article, I undertake a comparison between cohorts of women on the issue of role reversal, with a primary focus on the qualitative differences in what was said and by whom, rather than in how many said what. It is my argument that a qualitative analysis is revealing of the way in which cohort acts to influence the very language used to report ‘agreement’ or ‘disagreement’ on matters of gender. Via an analysis of responses to an interview question on role reversal, it is shown that historical location via cohort operates to make permissible and/or available, some ways of talking rather than others. Consequently, on the issue of role reversal, gender featured as a more relevant category in the talk of the oldest cohort than in the talk of the younger cohorts.
The Body as Weapon: Bobby Sands and the Republican Hunger Strikes
Authors: Yuill Chris
Published: March 2010

The 1981 Hunger Strike marked an important point in the Northern Ireland conflict, shifting its focus away from city streets and country lanes into the H-Block prison. Here republican prisoners used their embodiment to resist and fight back at attempts to recast them as criminals as opposed to the soldiers they perceived themselves to be. Given the centrality of the body and embodiment in the prison struggle this paper will theorise the ‘body-as-weapon’ as a modality of resistance. This will begin by interrogating key themes within the sociology of the body before discussing and dismissing an alternative explanation of the Hunger Strike: the actions of the hunger strikers standing in the traditions of heroic Gaelic myths and Catholic martyrdom. Finally, drawing from the sociology of the body, I will then proceed to discuss how the body and embodiment deployed in this manner can be effective, concentrating on how the ‘body-as-weapon’: (i) acts as a resource for minority political groups; (ii) destabilises notions of the body in modernity and related to that point (iii) engages in a ‘hidden’ impulse of modernity, that of self-sacrifice.
Neighbourliness and Privacy on a Low Income Estate
Authors: Boyce Isabella
Published: March 2010

This paper critically examines theories which suggest relationships between neighbours have diminished in importance in people's day-to-day lives because of macroscopic and microscopic forces such as: greater social mobility, the growth of individualism and an ever increasing number of women entering into paid employment (see Young, 1999 and Putnam, 2000). In this paper I provide new empirical evidence that challenges theories of neighbourly disassociation. By drawing on fieldwork data collected on a low income housing estate in the South of England, I am able to illustrate that: 1) intimate and strong relationships existed between neighbours that were moulded out of, and strengthened by, the need for shared solidarities in the face of financial, emotional and social hardship brought about by personal circumstances; 2) residents understood and accepted there was a ‘trade-off’ between neighbourly assistance and the issue of privacy; 3) contrary to current British and American literature (see Putnam, 2000; Garland, 2001) women were still actively undertaking the role of social facilitators on the estate; 4) community and neighbourly bonds were reinforced through trivial and traumatic events such as children's parties to the death of a loved one; 5) and residents’ interest in one another engendered a sense of security for women in the public environment.
What is ‘the Problem’ of Singleness?
Authors: Macvarish Jan
Published: March 2010

Over the past 30 years there has been a considerable increase in the number of people living alone; in the UK, the proportion of one-person households almost doubled between 1971 and 2000, rising from 17% to 31% of households (ONS, 2002). The research drawn on here explores the experience and representation of a rapidly growing sub-group of one-person households identified by Hall et al (1999) as female, metropolitan, managerial/professional, educated and mobile. The paper concentrates on questions surrounding the identity of those who have been termed the ‘new single women’ (Whitehead, 2003). In much of the specific ‘single women’ literature, the ‘problem’ of the single woman has been understood as residing in her social construction; her stigmatisation and marginalisation as an ‘other’, relative to the norms of heterosexual partnership and motherhood. It is argued here that significant contextual changes in the landscape of interpersonal relationships demand a reconsideration of the way in which singleness is understood sociologically.

The paper draws on semi-structured, in-depth interviews conducted in London and the South-East with a small sample of women (15) fitting the characteristics identified by Hall et al. They were aged 34-50, never-married 1 , currently lived alone, were not in a relationship and had never had children. All who volunteered for interview were heterosexual. The women were recruited using a snowball method with the reasoning that ‘word-of-mouth’ would recruit a more varied range of individuals than might respond to a public call for those who self-identified as ‘single’ to come forward. Part of the interview schedule was constructed to elicit information concerning how the women negotiated their identity and the way in which they related themselves to the category of ‘single woman’. The women were asked how they defined themselves, what they thought of the term spinster, and when they felt their singleness mattered (to themselves and to other people). They were also asked about their relationship and employment history, their daily lives and their future plans.
The Intimate Relationships of Contemporary Spinsters
Authors: Simpson Roona
Published: March 2010

Several theorists of social change have argued that there are profound transformations in social interactions emerging in the context of wider social, cultural and economic change, including a shift to greater choice and fluidity in personal relationships. Alongside this, there has been widespread academic support for the notion of individualism as a major explanation of family change, with several commentators raising concerns that changing familial forms signal increasing self-centredness and a decline in commitments to others. Remaining single can be seen as paradigmatic of such individualisation, and single women in particular risk being characterised by their lack of connection to significant others. However, there has been relatively little empirical attention to the relationships of single people. This paper draws on research on never-married single women in Britain and analyses their relationships with both kin and non-kin in relation to claimed transformations in intimacy prevalent in contemporary debates. It concludes by considering the implications of the main findings of this research for sociological debates about the changing conceptions of both intimacy and ‘the family’.
Habitus and Reflexivity: Restructuring Bourdieu's Theory of Practice
Authors: Mouzelis Nicos
Published: March 2010

Contrary to Bourdieu's thesis, it is not only when a subject's habitus does not fit a field's positions that s/he becomes more reflexive. Reflexivity is also enhanced by intra-habitus tensions, by more general incongruences between dispositions, positions, and interactive/figurational structures, as well as by situations unrelated to them. Because of his ambitious but unsuccessful attempt to transcend the objectivist-subjectivist divide in the social sciences, Bourdieu underemphasizes the interactive dimension of social games, and this creates serious problems for his conceptualization of the linkages between habitus, reflexivity, and practices. The way to make Bourdieu's theory of practice less functionalist and/or deterministic is to restructure it so that it seriously takes into account not only the dispositional and positional but also the interactive dimension of social games. It then becomes obvious that reflexive accounting, conscious strategizing, and rational calculation are not exceptional but routine, constitutive elements of human action.
Embodying and Embedding Children's Sleep: Some Sociological Comments and Observations
Authors: Williams Simon , Lowe Pam , Griffiths Frances
Published: March 2010

This paper, drawing on our own research findings data, explores the embodiment and embedment of sleeping in children's everyday/night lives. Key themes here include children's attitudes and feelings toward the dormant body, the processes, routines and rituals associated with going to bed and going to sleep, issues associated with bedrooms and privacy, and finally the relationship between dormancy and domicile. This in turn provides the basis, in the remainder of the paper, for a further series of reflections on the mutually informing relations between the sociology of sleep and the sociology of childhood. Remaining questions and challenges involved in researching children's sleep are also considered. Sleep, it is concluded, is not simply a rich and fascinating sociological topic in its own right it also has the potential to shed valuable new light on a significant yet hitherto under-researched part of children's lives, contributing important new insights in doing so.
Transsexualism in Spain: A Cultural and Legal Perspective
Authors: Soley-Beltran Patrícia
Published: March 2010

In this paper I will present an overview of the current legal, social and political situation of transsexual and transgendered people in Spain. The study is based on qualitative data gathered from in-depth interviews with transsexual people, transgendered activists and legal experts in Spain, including some aspects of a cross-cultural comparison between Spain and the UK. The empirical study accounts for the development of social policies related to sex-reassignment and their evolution in the last decade in Spain, as well as for transsexual associations and activism, issues of social exclusion and prostitution.

The study on transsexuals consists of qualitative interviews with selected individuals of the transsexual community in Scotland and Catalonia about their life experiences. The analysis of the qualitative data explores the cultural assumptions underlying the legal aspects of sex-reassignment. Amongst other issues, the paper will deal with Spanish juridical procedures for documental reorientation and its potential role as incentive for undergoing sex-reassignment operation, and the performative character of transsexualism as a scientific category and folk gender myths in the shaping of gender. The cross-cultural comparison concerns scientific terminology and funding, as well as cultural and legal aspects of sex-reassignment.

The study reveals the performative character of scientific categories, the mobilisation of conflicting discourses in the negotiation of meaning, the circularity and self-referentiality of the terms used both in expert and folk discourse. Moreover, the cross-cultural comparison demonstrates the conventionality of transsexualism as a scientific category and some of the ways in which social institutions act to perpetuate the erasure of gender fluidity.
‘Re-Using’ Qualitative Data: On the Merits of an Investigative Epistemology
Authors: Mason Jennifer
Published: March 2010

This article is written to accompany and respond to the articles that form the special issue of Sociological Research Online on ‘Re-using qualitative data’. It argues that the articles are a welcome contribution, because they help to move the debate beyond moralistic and polarised positions, to demonstrate instead what sociologists can achieve by ‘re-using’ qualitative data. The article argues for an investigative epistemology and investigative practices to guide qualitative data use and ‘re-use’, and suggests that this is particularly important in the current social research climate.
Accessing Socially Excluded People — Trust and the Gatekeeper in the Researcher-Participant Relationship
Authors: Emmel Nick , Hughes Kahryn , Greenhalgh Joanne , Sales Adam
Published: March 2010

This paper describes methodological findings from research to recruit and research hard-to-reach socially excluded people. We review the ways in which researchers have used particular strategies to access hard-to-reach individuals and groups and note that little attention has been given to understanding the implications of the nature of the trust relationship between researcher and participant. Gatekeepers invariably play a role in accessing socially excluded people in research, yet discussion to date invariably focuses on the instrumental role gatekeepers play in facilitating researchers’ access. In this paper we explore the possibilities for analysing relationships in terms of trust and distrust between gatekeeper and socially excluded participant. Our analysis considers the different kinds of relationships that exist between gatekeepers and socially excluded people and, in particular, the relationships of power between gatekeepers and socially excluded people. Insights into the nature of trust among socially excluded people will also be considered. Finally, we discuss how size and use of social networks among socially excluded groups and perceptions of risk in interactions with gatekeepers are important to understanding the possibilities for trustful relationships, and for meaningful and successful access for researchers to socially excluded individuals and groups.