bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reasons for a Symbolic Concept of Action
Authors: Boesch Ernst E.
Published: March 2007

The action theoretical framework of cultural psychology as discussed here recognizes in every action and situation a symbolic part of the total varience of meaning. This aspect of the theory, although central, is often disregarded. Three of its implications are discussed here: the steps of reasoning leading to the concept of a pervasively symbolic action; its usefulness in cultural psychology; and, its relation to a philosophical idea of the human being.
Culture, Personhood and Narrative: The Problem of Norms and Agency
Authors: Rasmussen Susan
Published: March 2007

This is a critical evaluation of Gone, Miller and Rappaport’s (1999) analysis of the significance of past personal narrative for the study of conceptual self in cultural identity. Gone et al. address the dilemma, in cultural psychology, of how best to concentrate analytic attention upon the agency of the individual, on the one hand, while simultaneously assessing the pre-existing framework of semiotic resources constructing individual action, on the other. The authors, correctly I believe, critique both extremes of reducing these processes either to an autonomous agent, an individual more or less creatively free from the conventions of cultural expression, or, alternatively, to the reification of culture as monolithic and propelling the passive individual. This commentary, it is hoped, drawing upon cultural anthropological and psychological anthropological paradigms, contributes toward resolution of these circular arguments, which tend to vacillate between individualist and collectivist conceptions of culture, society and the individual. The present commentary develops Gone et al.’s ideas and offers some suggestions for moving beyond them, toward a more dynamic and less culture-bound concept of person and narrative.
Bringing the Members Back in?
Authors: Hopkin Jonathan
Published: March 2007

Primary elections and membership ballots are becoming more common as a means of selecting candidates in European parties. This article assesses the likely implications of these changes for party cohesion by examining the American experience of primaries and contrasting US candidate selection with the membership ballots and primaries recently adopted by parties in the UK and Spain. It is argued that, in the absence of state regulation of candidate selection in European parties, these changes are unlikely to undermine party organizations as primaries have in the US. Instead, the European experience suggests that party leaders have been able to retain ultimate control over candidate selection, and that the democratization of the process has been more formal than real.
Toward a Common Dimensionality in West European Policy Spaces
Authors: Warwick Paul V.
Published: March 2007

Research on democratic government is currently hampered by the fact that, while theoretical work usually hypothesizes multidimensional policy spaces, empirical researchers have failed to reach a consensus on which dimensions characterize West European policy spaces (apart from the left-right dimension). In this paper, I present evidence that the expert ratings of political parties from Laver and Hunt's (1992) expert survey and the coding of party manifestos undertaken by the Comparative Manifestos Project both suggest the existence of three common dimensions in West European democratic systems: left-right, `social control', and post-materialism. I also show that these dimensions are not characteristic of just a few systems but rather divide parties significantly in most or all of the 16 countries examined.
Identifying the True Party Identifiers
Authors: Sanders David , Burton Jonathan , Kneeshaw Jack
Published: March 2007

The paper reviews the evidence that the measure of party identification (or partisanship) routinely used in social surveys and national election studies is flawed due to the fact that it overestimates the number of party identifiers in any given sample. The results of a 12-month survey experiment are reported to show that an alternative measure of party identification, one that does not prompt respondents with the names of the political parties and allows respondents a clear opportunity to register a `non-identity', substantially reduces the proportion of reported party identifiers.
Europeanization and Political Parties
Authors: Ladrech Robert
Published: March 2007

Europeanization is a term used to describe the effects of European integration on the politics and policies of its member states as well as the process of enhancing European-level political institutions. Within this growing literature there is no systematic effort to incorporate the role of political parties. However, party analysis has only recently begun to acknowledge the EU as an environment that holds potentially significant consequences for parties. In this article, I attempt to begin systematic research on Europeanization and political parties by presenting a basic framework for analysis. Five areas are singled out: (1) policy/programmatic content; (2) organization; (3) patterns of party competition; (4) party-government relations; and (5) relations beyond the national party system.
The `Logic' of Positive Action?
Authors: Geddes Andrew
Published: March 2007

Ethnic minority under-representation in British politics is apparent at both local and national level. This article focuses on the candidate selection procedures of the main parties to assess explanations of under-representation and account for the development of a critique, by the Labour Party, of the `liberal' paradigm that underpins candidate selection. Labour have developed a positive action strategy to promote women's candidacy. This article contends that the development of such a critique has clear implications for other under-represented groups, such as ethnic minorities.
Mobilizing Demobilized Voters in Post-Communist Societies
Authors: Rose Richard
Published: March 2007

A stable party system requires people to trust institutions, including parties, but in post-communist countries people have lived nearly all their lives in a political system that created distrust in reaction to aggressive attempts to mobilize support for the party-state. Comparative survey data from 10 post-communist countries show that the majority of electors are demobilized - that is, they distrust parties, do not identify with a party, the modal group is a don't know when asked to express a party preference, and committed partisans are only a quarter of the electorate. The result is that electoral support for parties is extremely volatile in comparison with election results in earlier waves of democratization. This does not immediately threaten the regime, however, for even though most people do not believe that they can influence government, even more importantly they feel greater freedom from the state, which cannot influence them as in the days of the communist party-state.
Party Competition and Institutional Change
Authors: Scarrow Susan E.
Published: March 2007

A wave of plebiscitary reforms has swept the German states in the past decade. This study uses explanations for cartel party failure as a starting point for investigating why the biggest German parties defected from their long-held consensus against direct democracy. The article shows that, in an increasingly competitive electoral environment, parties were willing to sacrifice long-term benefits in hopes of making short-term electoral gains. More generally, it suggests that the course of institutional reform cannot be understood merely by looking at distributions of party interests and voter preferences. Instead, it is also necessary to examine why political actors come to see their interests in a different light.
Party Relations and Democracy in Latin America
Authors: Norden Deborah L.
Published: March 2007

Although most political party systems in Latin America have relatively few major parties, and in many case those parties fall relatively closely together ideologically, the countries of Latin America have consistently struggled with political instability. This article argues that an important factor contributing to the varying stability of political party systems concerns how major parties compete. Party systems with a moderate level of competition, in which opposing parties have distinct positions, authentically attempt to defeat their opponents, but accept as legitimate an opposition win, tend to be the most stable. Party systems become relatively less stable with either more or less competition. Party systems with combative party relations, in which parties do not accept the right of the opposition to win, tend to be the most unstable, as the primary competitors may themselves be inclined to support the usurpation of democracy. However, party systems with collusive party relations, in which major parties cooperate closely through pacted or consociational arrangements, may also contribute to instability. These arrangements may initially facilitate democratization during transition periods, but over time the stagnating party system may fail to keep pace with a changing society. Limited opportunities for new political parties and a loss of representativeness by the older parties encourage the development of anti-system parties.
The State and Status of Physical Education in Schools in International Context
Authors: Marshall Joe , Hardman Ken
Published: March 2007

Against a background of perceived threats to physical education, an investigative world-widesurvey of the state and status of physical education in schools funded by the International Olympic Committee was carried out in 1998–9. The survey findings, based on data collated from a globally administered semi-structured questionnaire and an extensive literature survey, reveal that school physical education is in a perilous position in all continental regions of the world. Specifically, the article addresses issues of legal status and actual implementation, restricted or decreasing curriculum time allocation, subject status and attitudes of headteachers, other teachers and parents, inadequacies in financial, material and human resources and teacher preparation, curriculum trends, as well as scepticism about the subject’s future. Concluding comments allude to the main sources of concern and international efforts to sustain physical education in schools in the next millennium.
Age and Gender Issues in Adolescent Attitudes to Dance
Authors: Sanderson Patricia
Published: March 2007

Qualitative research indicates that dance is an immensely popular recreational activity with young people, yet in many European schools it is often regarded as that aspect of the PE curriculum most suited to young children and high-school girls. This practice however is not based on empirical information; details relating to adolescent attitudes to dance for instance andhow these may vary with age and gender are sparse. Opinions were sought, therefore, from a total of 1668 11–16-year-old boys and girls, from 19 schools throughout England, using a questionnaire which included four Likerttype dance attitude scales. Analyses showed little change in attitudes between the ages of 11 and 16 and no interaction of age with gender. Girls displayed more positive attitudes than boys on two of the scales, but the reverse was the case on the third scale and no gender differences were evident on the fourth. The virtual absence of change in age-related scale scores highlights the need for both increased dance provision in schools and more focused teaching, while the specific nature of the gender-related attitude differences offers curriculum development opportunities. The absence of interaction between age and gender suggests cultural rather than school influences on attitudes.
Conceptions of Children and Adolescents with Physical Disabilities about Their Participation in a Sports Programme
Authors: KristÈn Lars , Patriksson Göran , Fridlund Bengt
Published: March 2007

Sport and leisure can be of significant importance for the well-being and social support of children and adolescents with physical disabilities. However, it has been established that organized sport sometimes has a social construction, in that those without disabilities are favoured at the expense of others. The aim of this study was, therefore, to describe conceptions of children and adolescents with physical disabilities about their participation in a sports programme. Using questions based on a holistic view of the human being, 20 children and adolescents were interviewed. The method of analysis used was inspired by phenomenography. Six categories emerged: getting new friends, learning, strengthening one’s physique, becoming someone, experiencing nature and having a good time. The findings show the great diversity of sports participation. Further, the conceptions mirror the difficulty of dividing people into groups and of delimiting important areas. The findings highlight the importance of programmes where actors from different sections of society cooperate. Even if the findings cannot be generalized, they nevertheless demonstrate that physical activity involves many positive factors both at the individual and at the society level.
Age, Gender and Motivation for Participation in Extra Curricular Physical Activities in Secondary School Adolescents
Authors: Daley Amanda , O'Gara Ann
Published: March 2007

The aim of this study was to consider the relationship between age and children's motives for participation in extra-curricular physical activities. In addition, this relationship was considered in relation to gender. The Participation Motivation Inventory was completed by 145 children who were students at a mixed comprehensive school. Results revealed age and gender main effects. It appeared that Year 7 and Year 10 children are motivated to take part in extra-curricular activities for different reasons. Boys and girls also reported differing reasons for participation in extra-curricular physical activities.
Producing Evaluations in a Large Bureaucracy
Authors: House Ernest R. , Haug Carolyn , Norris Nigel
Published: March 2007

The field of program evaluation has expanded rapidly over the past three decades so that evaluation of programs is standard practice in many government agencies. One development is that evaluation activities have moved inside large government agencies with the establishment of internal evaluation staffs, procedures and policies. This study examined empirically the development of evaluation issues and processes in one branch of the National Science Foundation in the USA. The study, which involved 3 years of intermittent participant-observation and 44 interviews, indicates that evaluations (in this office) are heavily influenced by the way the work is organized and produced, as well as by the usual considerations that shape evaluations elsewhere. In particular, this paper addresses two primary issues identified in the study as critical to the successful establishment of an evaluation office: ( I ) the evolution of an evaluation culture within the organization, and (2) the management of a semi-internal, semi-external evaluation production process.
Anything Goes
Authors: Adelman Clem
Published: March 2007

Although evaluators have devised a range of ethical and methodological approaches to evaluation, most have assumed a Weberian construct regarding organizations. Evaluators have tended to avoid judgemental data on the use of power and authority in organizations and have taken refuge in various relativistic discourses. Attempts to deal with these problems, such as 'portrayal of persons' and case study, are considered.
A Critical Dialogue in Evaluation
Authors: Karlsson Ove
Published: March 2007

Evaluation has become an increasingly important steering mechanism in the Swedish political context during the past decade. New steering forms emphasizing political goals and decentralization have increased the demand for evaluation from politicians and for the different stakeholder groups to have a voice in evaluation. In this situation the crucial questions are how to involve claims from unfairly treated groups in evaluation and how to choose which criteria should be used for the selection and judgement of what should be evaluated. Questions like this put evaluation practice in the middle of a value-laden discourse and also raise the question of what strategies the evaluator could choose to handle evaluation within a political context.
Evaluation of Government Reforms
Authors: Haug Peder
Published: March 2007

This article deals with the relationship between established political conceptions about government reforms and experiences with reforms and their evaluation, the background being the change in Norwegian reform policy which has taken place in recent years. This change has increased our insight into how reforms are created in the state sector and has also shed light on the different functions of such reforms, highlighting the consequences of topical questions for understanding evaluation and the evaluation strategies which are used.
Redesigning Fourth generation Evaluation
Authors: Laughlin Richard , Broadbent Jane
Published: March 2007

This article's primary concern is with clarifying and, more importantly, developing the nature of 'fourth generation' evaluation coming from the work of Guba and Lincoln (I989). The suggested developments to this evaluatory model are intended to make the approach somewhat more practical and relevant to specific evaluatory concerns. Guba and Lincoln's 'fourth generation' evaluatory process, suitably developed, is advanced as providing the wide-ranging approach for this evaluation. This article describes the nature of this approach, which relies on and encourages all stakeholders' critically discussing the claims, concerns and issues on the focus of interest, leading to action outcomes. By probing into this approach, a number of problems in its design are highlighted. Guba and Lincoln's proposed model is enriched by suggesting possible solutions to the challenges offered by the solipsism of their approach, the implicit privileging of the client and evaluator, the underspecification of the processes of discourse and the accountability of the processes.
Still Life in Nearly Present Time: The Object of Nature
Authors: THRIFT NIGEL
Published: March 2007

This article attempts to understand the reconstitution of the `present' in modern societies. I argue that this reconstitution is the result of work done on `bare life', which I associate with that little space of time between action and performance. The article goes on to consider the ways in which this reconstitution of the present is taking place, using examples from the economic sphere. Throughout the article, I argue that operations on bare life are not only instrumental but also open up new spaces of biopolitical practice based on a greater recognition of the value of slowness in a world commonly figured as fast.
Bodies in the Woods
Authors: MACNAGHTEN PHIL , URRY JOHN
Published: March 2007

In this article, we examine the intimate significance of trees and woods through research on how people engage with and perform their bodies in different kinds of wooded environments in contemporary Britain. We argue that there are significant, contested and ambivalent affordances provided by woods and forests in contemporary Britain - as providing `live' contact with nature, as a source of tranquillity, and as providing a distinct `social' space in sharp contrast to the pressures of modern living. Second, there is considerable variation in the bodily experiences that people gain from woods and forests, influenced by personal and family life-stage, socio-economic circumstance and geographical location. The values people appear to attach to woods and forests arise from the specific `affordances' that the latter could offer for bodily desires. There are, we might say, different `contested' natures of the forest.
Japan's First Cyborg? Miss Nippon, Eugenics and Wartime Technologies of Beauty, Body and Blood
Authors: ROBERTSON JENNIFER
Published: March 2007

In June 1931, on the eve of the invasion of Manchuria, the Japanese mass media announced the winner of the first Miss Nippon contest. Applicants were limited to rank amateurs whose photographs, and not bodies, were judged by a panel of mostly elderly men who regarded the contest as `culture work'. A second contest was held in 1934. One of the main objectives of the Miss Nippon contests was to locate and record photographically, young women whose allegedly `pure blood' and ideal bodily proportions demonstrated the success of eugenics and social hygiene programs launched decades earlier. Japan's imperialist aggression in Asia and the Pacific forms the backdrop to this study on the centrality of popular cultural events and media in the state's attempt to improve the `Japanese race' through technologies of eugenics and social hygiene. The article explores the politics of blood, body and beauty, three interrelated subjects, framed by the Miss Nippon contests, that were common to the colonial project and the discourse of eugenics alike.
Bodies for Sale – Whole or in Parts
Authors: Scheper-Hughes Nancy
Published: March 2007

This article introduces the topic of body and commerce commodification as an effort to return sociological and anthropological thinking to a consideration of bodies as tangible, palpable and real material objects as well as semi-magical and symbolic representations. It argues for an enlarged conception of commodification as encompassing all monetized relations in which human bodies (whole or in divisible parts) are the token of economic exchanges that are often masked as something else love, pleasure, altruism, kindness.
Replicating Our Bodies, Losing Our Selves: News Media Portrayals of Human Cloning in the Wake of Dolly
Authors: PETERSEN ALAN
Published: March 2007

According to recent news reports, developments in biotechnology promise to transform our bodies and our lives. Stem cell research and cloning research are reported to offer us the prospect of being able to grow `spare' body parts and to replace diseased or damaged tissue, implying that there are no natural limits to life, and that the body-machine may be endlessly repaired, and even replicated. The birth of a cloned sheep, Dolly, announced in February 1997, is seen as a milestone development in this regard, suggesting that it is possible to defy `nature' by `turning back the biological clock'. While the development was heralded by many as pointing to new medical therapies, it also served to fuel widespread fears that the technology would soon be applied to cloning humans. This article explores how the news media `framed' issues on human cloning in the aftermath of the announcement of Dolly and thus may have heightened public concerns about its implications, particularly for `individuality' or `identity'. It draws on articles appearing in Australian newspapers, beginning with the initial stories on Dolly through to May 1999, when it was reported that Dolly had shown signs of premature ageing. The article highlights the role of the media in shaping public debate on biotechnology, particularly with regard to its impacts on the body, self and society.
Demon Lover: Epistemology in the Flesh
Authors: RUTLEDGE DAVID
Published: March 2007

This article discusses the politics of sex, gender and knowledge in the development of the Lilith myth in Jewish folklore. More generally, it discusses the contemporary intersection of discourses on Rabbinic Judaism, postmodernism and sexuality, and considers the ironic implications of expectations that post-modernism and its precursors might help to `redeem' Western epistemologies from their logocentric, masculinist biases. The insight - arguably not alien to Rabbinic thought - that knowledge or discourse involves a sexually marked set of practices and performances, is put forward as being `reversible', i.e. as implying that sexual markings (such as binary sex distinctions) might therefore be considered as discursive. The efficacy of contemporary critiques of knowledge production is closely bound up with acknowledgement of this point.
The Possibility of Primitiveness: Towards a Sociology of Body Marks in Cool Societies
Authors: TURNER BRYAN S.
Published: March 2007

This article argues that tattooing and body piercing in modern societies cannot be naively innocent acts; such activities cannot recapture primitiveness, because they take place within a social context, where social membership is not expressed through hot loyalties and thick commitments. Body marks in primitive society were obligatory signatures of social membership in solidaristic groups, wherein life-cycle changes were necessarily marked by tattooing and scarification. Modern societies are metaphorically like airport departure lounges where passengers are encouraged to be cool and distant, orderly and regulated. The article is thus critical of recent attempts to discover and unearth Dionysian moments of creative tribalism in modern youth groups or working-class communities. Body marks are commercial objects in a leisure marketplace and have become optional aspects of a body aesthetic, which playfully and ironically indicate social membership. They cannot serve as charismatic entrance points to the primitive.
Hudson's Pictures in Pandora's Box
Authors: Dervgowski Jan B. , Byth William
Published: March 2007

Highly sophisticated Europeans and unsophisticated Zambians responded to two of Hudson's Pictorial Perception Test stimuli displayed in "Pandora's Box. " Neither the application of Hudson's nor of "Pandora's Box" procedure yielded evidence of depth perception in the case of the Zambian samples. The European sample responding to the "Pandora's Box" procedure did perceive depth in the stimulus containing both overlap and familiar size cues, and failed to do so in response to the stimulus containing familiar size cues only. The hypothesis that the two populations will not differ on the task and will both fail to perceive depth as measured by "Pandora's Box" was therefore rejected, as was the hypothesis that the reduction of background cues occurring in the box would lead to an increase in the number of 3-D responses.
Should a Child's Life be Sustained at all Costs?
Authors: Foster Claire
Published: March 2007

The principle that a child's life should be sustained at all costs is coming under attack for many different and compelling reasons. In this article I explore the main objections to sustaining life in the form of a dialogue. Each of the following three arguments will be addressed: i) that resources are limited and choices based on outcome should be made between patients and between treatments; ii) that a patient's life may not be worth living if its quality is very bad, and a patient's carer may also be being asked to make too great a sacrifice for the sake of the patient's life; iii) that if a patient is competent and wants to die, then he or she should be allowed to; likewise, in the case of a young child or baby, the wishes of the parents or guardians should be respected. I conclude, however, that these are not sufficient moral justifications for not seeking to sustain life. At the same time I acknowledge that the principle of always seeking to sustain life was not reached by means of rational consideration but was accepted from a standpoint of religious ethics, and I defend that standpoint.
Individual Differences in the Caregiving Behavior of Teenage Mothers: An Ecological Perspective
Authors: Luster Tom
Published: March 2007

Adolescent mothers differ markedly in terms of the quality of care they provide for their children. The purpose of this study was to identify factors related to individual differences in the quality of care adolescent mothers provided for their 54-month-old children. Belsky's model of the determinants of parenting was used to select the predictor variables that were used in the analysis [Belsky, J. (1984). Child Development, 55, 83-96.]. Data on parenting practices were collected for 104 adolescent mothers from the family advocates who worked with these families during a 5-year, family support program. Characteristics of the young mothers (e.g. depression, childrearing beliefs), characteristics of the child (e.g. irritability) and contextual sources of stress and support (e.g. neighborhood environment) were correlated with advocates' assessments of parenting.
A Cognitive-affective Model of Relational Expectations in the Provider-patient Context
Authors: O'Hair Dan , Allman Joyce , Moore Scott D.
Published: March 2007

Patients and health-care providers bring a number of expectations to the medical encounter. Relational expectations are especially salient in this context given the emphasis placed on the need for effective communication. Relational expectations vary from one patient to the next and can vary widely among health- care professionals. These expectations are based on an individual's past history of similar relationships and a perception of current conditions. The purpose of this work is to advance a model of relational expectations based on the cognitive and affective processes that function before and during the communication interaction. A conceptual analysis will synthesize previous work, culminating in the construction of a theoretical model of relational expectations. Further, implications of relational expectations will be noted as they affect the relationship quality, communication patterns and health outcomes of both patients and providers.
Ambiguity of Monogamy as a Safer-sex Goal Among Single, Pregnant, Inner-city Women
Authors: Britton Paula J. , Levine Oneida H. , Jackson Anita P. , Hobfoll Stevan E. , Shepherd James B. , Lavin Justin P.
Published: March 2007

We examined the ambiguity of monogamy as a safer-sex goal in a sample of young, inner- city women ( N = 447), of whom 58 percent were African- American and 42 percent European-American. It was our premise that women may be misperceiving and underestimating their risk due to differences in their definition and beliefs about monogamy, and thus are not changing their behavior. When compared to long-term monogamous women (self-reporting one partner in the past year), serially monogamous women (reporting two or more partners in the past year) perceived themselves at greater risk but did not report more frequent use of condoms. It is possible that a suggestion of monogamy may be subject to multiple interpretations and thus could be providing women with a false sense of safety. Risk reduction should be defined in specific behavioral terms.
Determinants of Safer Sexual Behavior in a Long-term HIV-seropositive Population
Authors: Huszti Heather C. , Parsons Jeffrey T. , Cotton David , Mendoza Jorge , Harlow Lisa , Rich Louise , Parish Kathy L. , Nuss Rachelle , Riske Brenda
Published: March 2007

Determinants of safer sexual behaviors among HIV-infected adult men with hemophilia were examined. A model was proposed that personal adjustment, communication skills, self-efficacy, and perceived advantages of condom use would influence safer sex practices. The model was tested with 181 men with hemophilia and HIV infection from 27 hemophilia treatment centers across the United States. The hypothesized model was tested using LISREL and explained 35 percent of the variance in safer sexual behaviors. Personal adjustment was significantly associated with general communication skills. General communication was linked with communication about safer sex which, in turn, influenced self-efficacy and perceived advantages of condom use. Communication about safer sex, efficacy and perceived advantages of condom use were all directly related to safer sexual behaviors.
Violent Men, Violent Land
Authors: Jarman Neil
Published: March 2007

This paper considers how the physical landscape of Northern Ireland is used in film, television and novels to suggest that violence is part of the essential character of the Irish. I begin by discussing the way in which mural paint ings have become a key signifier of the threat of Republican violence. The paintings have come to stand in for the unseen gunmen themselves who are depicted as a product of the decaying urban fabric and represented by it. But the paintings are also used to redefine the working-class estates as ghettos, a term which helps to frame the context of the violence as other and distant from British political life. In contrast to the violence of the poor ghetto dwellers the middle classes are shown as responsible and law abiding. They are peaceful men and women living in the respectability of the suburban landscape.
The World On a Plate
Authors: Cook Ian , Crang Philip
Published: March 2007

This article uses claims about the local globalization of culinary culture to stage an argument about the character of material cultural geographies and their spaces of identity practice. It approaches these geographies in two ways. First, it views foods not only as placed cultural artefacts, but also as dis-placed materials and practices, inhabiting many times and spaces which, far from being neatly bounded, bleed into and mutually constitute each other. Second, it considers the geographical knowledges, or understandings, of foods' geo graphies, mobilized within circuits of culinary culture, outlining their pro duction through processes of commodity fetishism, and arguing for forms of critical intervention that work with the fetish rather than attempt to reach behind it.
Scenes From a Troubled Marriage
Authors: Lofgren Orvar
Published: March 2007

Why did material culture studies take up such a central space in the develop ment of European ethnology in Sweden and why was this field abandoned, only to return during the 1980s in the new form of studies of 'creative con sumption' ? This paper looks at the changing ways in which the world of goods has been a research topic. Drawing on the Swedish experience it also discusses some ways of revitalizing the field, focusing on the materiality of everyday life, from the level of home-making to nation-building.
Questioning the Validity of the Semantic-Pragmatic Syndrome Diagnosis
Authors: Gagnon Louise , Mottron Laurent , Joanette Yves
Published: March 2007

The classification of developmental language disorders has recently witnessed the birth of a subsyndrome, semantic-pragmatic syndrome, used to describe the case of children with specific language and communication impairments. However, there are striking similar-ities between children with semantic-pragmatic syndrome and those with high-functioning autism on a communicative, behavioural and cognitive level. This article questions the validity of semantic-prag-matic syndrome as a diagnostic concept distinct from high-function-ding autism and, consequently, its use as a clinical entity.
Abnormal Sleep Patterns Associated with Autism
Authors: Stores Gregory , Wivggs Luci
Published: March 2007

Statements have recurrently been made about the high rate of sleep problems reported in children with autism, particularly difficulty initiating and maintaining sleep at appropriate times of the night and day. Autism itself is frequently associated with the presence of learning disability and a variety of other medical conditions. These often coexisting factors are themselves associated with sleep abnormalities and therefore caution is needed when attempting to assess the relationship between autism and sleep abnormalities. Detailed consideration of the various possible causes of sleep problems is required to reach meaningful diagnostic and treatment decisions. The present account reviews the published work on sleep disturbance and autism, highlighting theoretical and practical issues which need further attention. Methods of assessing and treating sleep disorders are also discussed, with special consideration of factors related to autism which may affect the choice of method.
Parental Concerns of Early Development in Children with Autism and Related Disorders
Authors: Vostanis Panos , Smith Beryl , Corbett John , Sungum-Paliwal Reena , Edwards Aylif , Gingell Kate , Golding Rachel , Moore Angela , Wiilliams Jane
Published: March 2007

Parents of consecutively referred children with autism (39), Asperger syndrome (13), atypical autism (15), learning disability (20) and semantic-pragmatic disorder (14) completed a questionnaire on concerns regarding their child's development between 12 and 18 months. The early development questionnaire included scales of communication and language, social relationships and play behaviour. The autism and the learning disability groups differed significantly on most items. The diagnosis of autism was best predicted by play behaviour items and lack of referential gestures. Factor analysis within the autism group identified factors involving items from different scales, such as lack of physical contact, social communication and imitative skills. Children with the diagnosis of semantic-pragmatic disorders had relatively high rates of early difficulties in social development. Implications for the screening and detection of autism and related disorders in early life and for the training of professionals involved are discussed.
Transfer of the Picture-in-the-Head Analogy to Natural Contexts to Aid False Belief Understanding in Autism
Authors: McGregor Evelyn , Whiten Andrew , Blackburn Pennie
Published: March 2007

Interventions to build false belief understanding in people with autism have successfully used a picture-in-the-head technique to illustrate that seeing directs actions. However, participants who subsequently passed some novel false belief tasks could not do so in real-life settings. The present intervention aimed to bridge this gap in understanding by using teaching methods that linked picture-in-the-head dolls to videos of actors in natural settings. The intervention comprised three levels. At level 1, participants were taught that seeing leads to knowing. At level 2, they were helped to pass false belief scenarios using picture-in-the-head dolls. At level 3, they were guided from these scenes to similar stories on video in which people acted out the false belief events. At post-test, seven out of ten subjects (mean verbal mental age 4:2 years) passed at least two out of three novel video-recorded false belief stories. However, some participants required narration in order to complete the tasks. Observation of the learning process across individuals indicated that there are subgroups of people with autism who have different areas of difficulty.
The `Society of Captives' in the Era of Hyper-Incarceration
Authors: SIMON JONATHAN
Published: March 2007

Forty years after the publication of Gresham Sykes's Society of Captives and the second edition of Donald Clemmer's The Prison Community (1958) the incarcerated population in the US, now over 2 million, has grown to an unprecedented size, but paradoxically attention to and concern with the social order of prisons in US academic and political discourse has declined. Just when the experience of imprisonment is becoming a normal pathway for significant portions of the population, the pathways of knowledge that made the experience of incarceration visible are closing. Clemmer, Sykes, and the golden age of US prison sociology they ushered in, helped make prison social order a seemingly knowable object for prison managers and public discourse more generally. The publication 30 years later of John Dilulio's Governing Prisons (1987) can be seen in retrospect as marking a new model of the relationship between expert knowledge, prison management, and the social order of prison. Dilulio's research strategy addressed fundamental weaknesses in prison sociology that had come to be evident in increasingly ungovernable prisons. It also contributed whereby prison social order falls into a dark zone of knowledge and power, integral neither to the production of scientific expertise or governmental programs within the prison. The conjunction of this shift with an enormous expansion in the size of the US prison population is cause for alarm.
Anarchaos and Order:
Authors: WILLIAMS CHRISTOPHER R. , ARRIGO BRUCE A.
Published: March 2007

In this article we explore aspects of anarchism and of chaos theory, suggesting that recent insights advanced by the latter shed new light on the former. The former conceptually explains the importance of natural order as a human process that questions and, ultimately, subverts the artifice of state-imposed authoritative order. The latter examines, both theoretically and empirically, the role of order, disorder, and `chaotic' social dynamics in the transitions that society faces (i.e. order to chaos and chaos to order). Thus, we contend that these perspectives are assimilable: anarchism describes an organic means of reconfiguring social dynamics and chaology shows us how this process of reconfiguration is a naturally occurring element in all physical and social systems. To situate the sustained conceptual analysis, we describe how the proposed assimilation impacts law, crime, and especially social justice in society.
Insecurity, Risk Suppression and Segregation:
Authors: SHEPTYCKI JAMES
Published: March 2007

This article uses the notion of `risk suppression' as a heuristic device in order to illuminate some important contemporary transformations in the delivery of security and social control, which is viewed as loosely coupled to the development of transnationalization. It views current trends in the segregation of the risky from the at risk, experienced in widely differing regions, as symptomatic of global shifts in governance. It is criminology's contribution to the sociology of the global system, arguing that the discourse of insecurity should be viewed as a constituent discursive element in the establishment of a transnational middle class.
Punishing Children:
Authors: RUGGIERO VINCENZO
Published: March 2007

This article examines the treatment of young offenders in an inner-city area of contemporary Britain. The effect of harsher legislation on the practices adopted by agencies and practitioners is highlighted. The analysis relates to the symbolic interactionist tradition, and on the basis of the material collected, convergencies and discrepancies with such theoretical tradition are pinpointed. In a brief conclusion, while the case under investigation is said to reflect the growing punitiveness exacted on youth in general, it is also said to signal the particular British obsession with punishing children.
The Causes of Animal Abuse:
Authors: AGNEW ROBERT
Published: March 2007

This article draws on the leading crime theories and the limited research on animal abuse to present a theory that explains why individuals engage in animal abuse. First, I describe the immediate determinants of animal abuse. Animal abuse is said to result from ignorance about the abusive consequences of our behavior for animals, the belief that abuse is justified, and the perception that abuse is personally beneficial. Second, I describe an additional set of factors that have both direct effects on animal abuse and indirect effects through the above three factors. These additional factors include individual traits, like empathy; the individual's socialization; the individual's level of strain or stress; the individual's level of social control; the nature of the animal under consideration; and the individual's social position.
Volatile and Contradictory Punishment
Authors: O'MALLEY PAT
Published: March 2007

Criminologists have recognized that contemporary penal policy and practice are characterized by an unusual degree of incoherence and volatility. Garland (1996) sees this as evidence of the limits of the sovereign state, Simon (1995) as a sign of the postmodern disintegration of modern penality, while others explain it in terms of the emergence of advanced liberalism and neo-liberal politics. This article argues that such incoherence is better understood in terms of the contradictory elements of New Right politics. The nature of this political alliance extends the repertory of penality simultaneously in `nostalgic' (neo-conservative) and `innovative' (neo-liberal) directions, resulting in considerable incoherence. At the same time, the conservative orientation to state authoritarian strategies and the neo-liberal leaning toward market and private sector governance, could account for the volatility. This brings into question some of the accounts based on more fundamental social transformations.
‘When Ovaries Retire’: Contrasting Women’s Experiences with Feminist and Medical Models of Menopause
Authors: Goldstein Diane E.
Published: March 2007

Western biomedical paradigms tend to treat health as the absence of disease and the appropriate functioning of biologic and psychophysiologic processes in the individual. Non-biomedical or lay concepts of health often focus on ability to function, or on social or spiritual well-being evidenced by physical fitness, energy, vitality, absence of pain, feeling healthy and the ability to maintain social relationships (Calnan, 1987). Differences between biomedical and lay concepts of health and illness are most pronounced when symptoms are amorphous and ambiguous. Scholarly works on menopausal syndrome traditionally treat the symptoms profile as nonspecific and psychological or psychosomatic (Kaufert, 1982), thus suggesting that there will be little agreement in lay discussions of the experience of menopause. Support group discussions suggest exactly the reverse. Members demonstrate remarkable consistency and agreement in their notions of symptom clusters, cause, and relief, but symptom profiles frequently are presented in highly subjective terms more in keeping with folk medical under-standings of health and illness. This article hopes to demonstrate the importance of using self-help groups to understand experientially constructed notions of health and illness and to argue for greater biomedical attention to lay understandings of menopausal syndrome.
Epidemiology and Sociology as Incommensurate Games: Accounts from the Study of Health and Ethnicity
Authors: Fenton Steve , Charsley Katharine
Published: March 2007

The ‘discrete variables’ methodology of epidemiology is contrasted with the contextuality and complexity of sociology in general and of qualitative fieldwork in particular. Sociology has always interrogated the categories which it deploys. The lessons of the contemporary interrogation of the category ‘ethnic group’ are applied in a critique of positivistic methodologies which have tended to treat ethnic groups as natural divisions of the population. The meanings of ethnicity in health research are explored and then illustrated by detailed accounts from fieldwork. The article closes with comments on the contribution which qualitative and sociologically informed methodologies may make to epidemiological studies.
Lesbians as Authentic Workers? Institutional Heterosexuality and the Reproduction of Gender Inequalities
Authors: Dunne Gillian A.
Published: March 2007

This article argues that there is an important blind spot in accounts of gender inequality which is the result of a heterosexual bias in research on work and family life. The absence of comparative reference points from non-heterosexual experience obscures the significance of heterosexuality itself for reproducing the status quo. The article provides a theoretical framework for conceptualizing the relevance of lesbian experience for illuminating processes which reproduce the gender order and those which facilitate change. It draws on two research projects to illustrate how the gender dynamics of lesbian relationships, with and without children, may support a different, less distorted relationship to paid employment.
Reading Porn: The Paradigm Shift in Pornography Research
Authors: Attwood Feona
Published: March 2007

This article examines the paradigm shift in pornography theory and research from a focus on `texts and effects' through to work emerging from the late 1980s onwards. The article considers the reconceptualization of pornography as a category, the location of pornography in relation to cultural hierarchy and form, the changing status of pornography in relation to mainstream representations, the significance of developing technologies and the movement towards more situated accounts of pornographic texts and their audiences as a series of attempts to contextualize the question `what is pornography?'