bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Smell, Odor, and Somatic Work: Sense-Making and Sensory Management
Authors: Waskul Dennis D. , Vannini Phillip
Published: January 2010

Sensation (noun) is emergent in joint acts of sensing (verb). To sense, in other words, is to make sense, and sense making entails what we call “somatic work.” We investigate these dynamics in the context of olfaction, highlighting how olfaction intersects with social, cultural, and moral order—thus compelling reflexive forms of somatic work by which people manage smell (as an act) and odor (as a sign). Our data are drawn from a convenience sample of twenty-three participants who reflected on their olfactory experiences through the use of research journals. We focus on three central dynamics: participants'attribution of meaning to odors, the somatic rules that structure perception, and olfactory facework. The participants in this study attribute meaning to odor through odiferous indexes that intersect with an individual's somatic career; olfactory somatic rules entail disciplined somatic work in relation to the intensity of odor, its context, and moral/aesthetic character. Because odor conveys meaning, it is part of the ritualized facework of everyday life. Odor is a subtle but significant component of the culturally normative and aesthetic rituals of expressive and impressive everyday life.
Nietzche at Northern: An Existential Narrative of Confronting the Abyss
Authors: Thomas Jim
Published: January 2010

When he spoke of murder, suicide, venereal disease, amputated limbs, and altered faces, it was with a faint air of persiflage. “This is unavoidable,” his voice seemed to say, “this is what we have got to do, unflinchingly. But this is not what we shall be doing when life is worth living again.” A wave of admiration, almost of worship, flowed out from Winston towards O'Brien.—George Orwell, 1961
Passion Work: The Joint Production of Emotional Labor in Professional Wrestling
Authors: Smith R. Tyson
Published: January 2010

This paper presents a case of jointly produced passion work. Passion work is emotional labor designed to elicit a strong response from subjects through an impression of extreme states such as pain, agony, or suffering. Based on an ethnographic investigation of professional wrestling participants, this study analyzes the backstage emotion teamwork that takes place within the self and with other performers. The study traces how performers do this physical labor and the social consequences of such work. The findings demonstrate that a) social rewards are intrinsic to performances of passion work, b) jointly produced passion work allows for the sort of breadth that is difficult to achieve in solo emotional work, and c) emotional labor shapes identity in recreational performances of the body.
Negotiating an Exit: Existential, Interactional, and Cultural Obstacles to Disorder Disidentification
Authors: Howard Jenna
Published: January 2010

This study highlights a population that has been largely overlooked in sociological research on labeling and identity: people who formerly identified with emotional disorder labels and have chosen to discard them (delabelers).

My qualitative analysis of 40 delabelers'narratives explores processes of identification and disidentification by highlighting the tension between individuals' decision to discard their labeled identities and their simultaneous reluctance to relinquish these identities. I characterize this tension as the consequence of existential, interactional, and cultural obstacles to disidentification that are common to delabelers' narratives. These obstacles include both a fear of the consequences of dissociating with the label as well as an attachment to the identity, the community, and the cultural support associated with the disorder label.
“Happier than Non-Christians”: Collective Emotions and Symbolic Boundaries among Evangelical Christians
Authors: Wilkins Amy C.
Published: January 2010

This article uses qualitative data (participant-observation and interviews) to examine happiness talk in a university-based evangelical Christian organization (University Unity). Unity Christians claim that they are happier than non-Christians, but rather than viewing their happiness as a mental health outcome of their participation in a religious organization, I view it as a cultural phenomenon—a way of talking and thinking about their emotions. I show how Unity participants learn to think of themselves as happy, learn to adjust their emotional responses and view their managed emotions as authentic, and learn to link happiness to their moral selves. Unity's emotion work helps participants achieve happiness, but because it also disallows any negative emotions, such happiness is compulsory. One cannot be a Unity Christian if one is not happy. In Unity, then, happiness is a symbolic boundary—participants see themselves as happier (and more authentically so) than others—but this feeling is also material in the crafting of more complex moral boundaries in which happiness is both sign and cause of other kinds of “goodness.” Happiness is an effective boundary not just because Unity Christians themselves want to be happy, but because most members of the middle class want to be happy, and because it builds on broader associations between happiness and morality. Inasmuch as happiness signals morality, unhappiness signals immorality.
From Festies to Tourrats: Examining the Relationship between Jamband Subculture Involvement and Role Meanings
Authors: Hunt Pamela M.
Published: January 2010

I introduce two continuous measures of subculture involvement (ideological embeddedness and behavioral-relational involvement), and use them to examine the relationship between involvement in the jamband subculture and the affective meanings (evaluation, potency, and activity) associated with 18 roles that are relevant to that subculture. I expect the two measures of involvement to be related positively to the evaluation and potency of fourteen subculture roles (deadhead, drinker, drug user, environmentalist, festie, hippie, phishhead, rainbow person, rastafarian, raver, stoner, tourrat, vendor, wharfrat), and negatively to the evaluation and potency of four authority roles (capitalist, nark, police officer, venue security officer). Using data from self-administered surveys ( N = 418 for familiar subculture and authority roles, N = 219 for less familiar subculture roles), I find that subculture members learn meanings for relevant roles as a result of their socialization in the subculture; more specifically, as a result of their levels of ideological embeddedness and behavioral-relational involvement. This study enhances other investigations of subculture and meaning socialization. First, whereas past studies have examined between-group meaning variation, I investigate within-group meaning variation. A within-group analysis should indicate whether or not groups are heterogeneous, a finding that might reduce negative acts such as stereotyping. Second, I introduce two continuous measures designed to capture two dimensions of subculture involvement: ideological embeddedness and behavioral-relational involvement. Similar to previous conceptualizations of involvement, these two measures represent both attitudinal and behavioral involvement. Third, previous qualitative research within the related Grateful Dead subculture suggests that although not all subculture roles are equal in terms of evaluation, most subculture roles tend to be equal in potency. I further investigate this hypothesis using evaluation and potency to represent the affective meaning of roles, and I examine the implications of these findings for the jamband subculture.
Race Relations Stories: How Southeast Asian Refugees Interpret The Ancestral Narration Of Black And White Peers
Authors: Hein Jeremy , Moore Christopher D.
Published: January 2010

The contact hypothesis (Allport 1954) predicts that cross-racial interaction can produce social bonding under certain status, relational, and institutional conditions. We extend this classic theory on ingroups and outgroups using qualitative data on Cambodian and Hmong refugees' recollections of casual conversations about ancestry with black and white peers. To cope with affective trauma, these refugees have created personal narratives about forced emigration. They believe that white peers shared stories about immigrant ancestors from Europe to affirm or elicit their emigration narrative. The refugees rarely believe that black peers' talk about slavery and discrimination was a story-sharing gesture and felt uncomfortable discussing these issues. Yet the refugees also feel disappointed when recalling interactions with assimilated white peers who “don't have a story to tell” about ancestry. From these inductive findings, this article proposes the corollary discourse hypothesis to explain how sentiments about intergroup narration, and not just frequency of contact, amplify or diminish empathy and association in a heterogeneous society.
Growing up Faster, Feeling Older: Hardship in Childhood and Adolescence
Authors: Johnson Monica Kirkpatrick , Mollborn Stefanie
Published: January 2010

We examine whether hardship while growing up shapes subjective age identity, as well as three types of experiences through which it may occur. Drawing on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we find that hardship in several domains during childhood and adolescence is associated with feeling relatively older and self-identifying as an adult in the late teens and twenties. Specifically, young people who as adolescents felt unsafe in their schools or neighborhoods, witnessed or were victims of violence, had fewer economic resources in the household, and lived in certain family structures, reported older subjective ages (by one or both measures). We find no evidence that hardship's association with subjective age is mediated by work responsibilities in adolescence or by anticipating a very curtailed life span, but entering adult roles earlier mediates or partially mediates many of these relationships.
The Politics of the Gene: Social Status and Beliefs about Genetics for Individual Outcomes
Authors: Shostak Sara , Freese Jeremy , Link Bruce G. , Phelan Jo C.
Published: January 2010

Social scientists have predicted that individuals who occupy socially privileged positions or who have conservative political orientations are most likely to endorse the idea that genes are the root cause of differences among individuals. Drawing on a nationally representative sample of the US population, this study examines belief in the importance of genes for understanding individual differences in a series of broad domains: physical illness, serious mental illness, intelligence, personality, and success in life. We also assess whether the belief that genetics are important for these outcomes is more common among those in relatively advantaged positions or among those who are more politically conservative. Finally, we consider whether such beliefs predict attitudes toward genetics-related social policies. Our analyses suggest that belief in the importance of genetics for individual differences may well have a substantial effect on attitudes toward genetics-related policies, independent of political orientation or other measures. Our study identifies high levels of endorsement for genes as causes of health and social outcomes. We describe a cultural schema in which outcomes that are “closer to the body” are more commonly attributed to genetics. Contrary to expectations, however, we find little evidence that it is more common for whites, the socioeconomically advantaged, or political conservatives to believe that genetics are important for health and social outcomes.
Expanding Trauma through Space and Time: Mapping the Rhetorical Strategies of Trauma Carrier Groups
Authors: Degloma Thomas
Published: January 2010

In this article, I detail two rhetorical strategies that trauma carrier groups—including social movement organizations, professional mental health associations, and patient advocacy groups—use to expand the relevance of trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) through space and time: the social transmission of trauma and the social affiliation of traumatic experiences. With regard to social transmission, carrier groups claim that the psychological consequences of traumatic events are shared by members of established communities (a collective experience framework) and spread through social relationships (a social network framework). They expand the relevance of trauma and PTSD beyond those who directly experience the traumatic event at issue. With regard to social affiliation, carrier groups attribute common consequences to otherwise distinct events, making trauma and PTSD relevant to a growing variety of communities and individuals. Trauma carrier groups use both strategies to generalize a vocabulary of victimization and promote affective solidarity, providing discursive tools that a growing variety of individuals and communities can use to identify with trauma and its consequences. By mapping these rhetorical strategies, I propose a framework for analyzing the microsocial dynamics of cultural trauma and the expansion of the trauma concept as a diagnostic lens for defining diverse individual and social problems.
The Sexual Double Standard and Adolescent Peer Acceptance
Authors: Kreager Derek A. , Staff Jeremy
Published: January 2010

The belief that women and men are held to different standards of sexual conduct is pervasive in contemporary American society. According to the sexual double standard, boys and men are rewarded and praised for heterosexual sexual contacts, whereas girls and women are derogated and stigmatized for similar behaviors. Although widely held by the general public, research findings on the sexual double standard remain equivocal, with qualitative studies and early attitudinal surveys generally finding evidence of the double standard and more recent experimental vignette designs often failing to find similar results. In this study, we extend prior research by directly measuring the social status of sexually permissive youth. We use data collected from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to relate adolescents' self-reported numbers of sexual partners to a network measure of peer acceptance. Results suggest that the association between lifetime sexual partnerships and peer status varies significantly by gender, such that greater numbers of sexual partners are positively correlated with boys' peer acceptance, but negatively correlated with girls' peer acceptance. Moreover, the relationship between boys'sexual behaviors and peer acceptance is moderated by socioeconomic origins; sexually permissive boys from disadvantaged backgrounds are predicted to have more friendships than permissive boys from more advantaged backgrounds. Our results thus support the existence of an adolescent sexual double standard and suggest that sexual norms vary by both gender and socioeconomic origins.
Affective Dynamics of Leadership: An Experimental Test of Affect Control Theory
Authors: SchrÖDer Tobias , Scholl Wolfgang
Published: January 2010

Affect Control Theory (ACT; Heise 1979, 2007) states that people control social interactions by striving to maintain culturally shared feelings about the situation. The theory is based on mathematical models of language-based impression formation. In a laboratory experiment, we tested the predictive power of a new German-language ACT model with respect to actual behavior and felt emotions in leadership; 60 subjects managed a computer simulated company by communicating with 3 different virtual employees (within-subjects manipulation). Half of the subjects were primed with the concept of authoritarian leadership using a situational interview technique; the remainder was primed with the concept of democratic leadership (between-subjects manipulation). There were 14 dependent variables (leadership categories like praise, criticize, augment salary, etc.). The German impression-formation model correctly predicted 27 of 42 between-subjects contrasts (p < .05) and 56 of 84 within-subjects contrasts (p < .01). Moreover, Euclidean distances of emotions predicted by the German ACT model correlated negatively with the frequency with which the subjects experienced these emotions (correlations ranged from r = −.18 to r = −.61). These results support Affect Control Theory's proposition that realistic social interaction can be predicted by mathematical models of affective consistency.
Altruism and Helping: The Evolution of a Field: The 2008 Cooley-Mead Presentation1
Authors: Allyn Piliavin Jane
Published: January 2010

I present a selective history of the evolution of the study of altruism and helping behavior, using a series of questions and answers. Some of the topics covered include the motives for helping, the origins of helping and altruism in evolution and child development, the relationship of organizations to helping, and the psychological and health consequences for the helper. A framework within which to view the current structure of the field is presented, and a challenge is issued for scholars in the areas of social movements and helping behavior to come together to synthesize the two fields.
Structural Implications of Reciprocal Exchange: A Power-Dependence Approach
Authors: Bonacich Phillip , Bienenstock Elisa Jayne
Published: January 2010

This paper presents and tests a general model to predict emergent exchange patterns and power differences in reciprocal exchange networks when individual actors follow the norm of reciprocity. With an interesting qualification, the experimental results reported here support the power-dependence approach (Emerson 1972a, b): those who acquire the most resources are connected to others who are dependent on them for rewards. Although, as Molm has abundantly demonstrated (1999, 2000, 2001, 2007), the quality of the relationship in negotiated and reciprocal exchange networks is quite different, and the details of a general model of network exchange might well differ for negotiated and reciprocal exchange, experimental results presented here indicate that power in networks, no matter how complex, is linked to dependence regardless of whether actors are motivated by rational choice or a norm of reciprocity.
Personalized Medicine and Genomics: Challenges and Opportunities in Assessing Effectiveness, Cost-Effectiveness, and Future Research Priorities
Authors: Conti Rena , Veenstra David L. , Armstrong Katrina , Lesko Lawrence J. , Grosse Scott D.
Published: January 2010

Personalized medicine is health care that tailors interventions to individual variation in risk and treatment response. Although medicine has long strived to achieve this goal, advances in genomics promise to facilitate this process. Relevant to present-day practice is the use of genomic information to classify individuals according to disease susceptibility or expected responsiveness to a pharmacologic treatment and to provide targeted interventions. A symposium at the annual meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making on 23 October 2007 highlighted the challenges and opportunities posed in translating advances in molecular medicine into clinical practice. A panel of US experts in medical practice, regulatory policy, technology assessment, and the financing and organization of medical innovation was asked to discuss the current state of practice and research on personalized medicine as it relates to their own field. This article reports on the issues raised, discusses potential approaches to meet these challenges, and proposes directions for future work. The case of genetic testing to inform dosing with warfarin, an anticoagulant, is used to illustrate differing perspectives on evidence and decision making for personalized medicine.
Perceptions of Time, Cultural Boundaries and ‘Region’ in Early Indian Texts
Authors: Parasher-Sen Aloka
Published: January 2010

Historiographical positions have hitherto suggested that historical regions be objectively encapsulated solely as entities of political control or, as regions with their present-day linguistic boundaries. This article takes an in-depth look at the way notions of time, history, space, boundaries and identities evolved in the early Indian textual traditions that impinged on how regions were continually in the process of making. Critical to the argument is the unveiling of theoretical underpinnings of the sources that modern historians use to reconstruct ancient historical regions, states and territories. Next, it highlights the boundaries of socio-cultural regions, as specified in the dominant literary tradition, to conclude that an inherent fluidity was manifested especially in the reckoning regions of exclusion.

Stable definition of regions was, however, entwined in data emerging out of regional inscriptions that elaborated primarily on socio-economic mechanisms of control. In this case study, the early textual traditions culturally interlinked a locality and region to its large whole, whereas specific data from inscriptions projected more concrete realities of boundary, space and time. Conflict between the two modes of perceiving and documenting the past has to be reckoned with, so as not to project our modern concerns of ‘country’, ‘region’ and ‘history’ into the past.
Nineteenth Century Writings in English on Western India
Authors: Ramanna Mridula
Published: January 2010

There were well known newspapers in early nineteenth century Bombay, associated with reformers and political leaders, like the Anglo-Marathi, Bombay Durpun, edited by Bal Shastri Jambhekar and the Anglo-Gujarati Rast Goftar, edited by Dadabhai Naoroji and Nowrozjee Furdoonjee. The aim of this article is not to review newspapers, which are rich primary source materials, but to explore little known writings in English, both by British and Indian writers, published in the years before 1867, when the Books and Newspapers Registration Act came into existence. The focus here is on a cross section of writings and includes works on commerce, almanacs, descriptions of Bombay and its peoples, travel accounts and books on naturalia and medicine, memorials and appeals. These could be of great utility in corroborating and supplementing information provided in the official records, as they are contemporary. Also examined and of significance, are essays written by students of Elphinstone Institution, some of whom became prominent in the later years of the century in the social reform and national movements.
Paris, Cuba, New York
Authors: Hernández Adrián Francisco-J.
Published: January 2010

This article investigates the complex inscription of modernist Cuban imaginaries within Atlantic cultural and political networks. I consider the tropes of cultural intelligibility and epistemic opacity in the fields of visual culture and cultural hierarchy. Through historical contextualizations of Wifredo Lam’s The Jungle (1943) within the Paris and New York art scenes of the late 1930s and early 1940s, I address the questions of intelligibility and relative value in the international reception of exotic cultural forms. I examine some of the ways in which discourses of Lam and The Jungle have been constructed, appropriated, and made to illustrate national, regional, and global necessities. Finally, I engage with issues of insularity and cultural specificity within the context of an ongoing production of racialized images of ‘Third World’ political chaos in today’s global Atlantic.
Unsettling
Authors: Metzger Sean
Published: January 2010

This article elaborates a Chinese/Cuban cultural critique that operates through the notion of unsettling in light of recent work in Asian American studies and Chinese diaspora studies. Examining three case studies—Carlos Felipe’s play The Chinaman ( El Chino), Rigoberto López’s documentary The Longest Journey ( El Viaje Más Largo), and Michael Mann’s feature film Miami Vice—the author suggests that these examples of expressive culture function as memory projects, which construct Chinese/Cuban figures and reconfigure attachments to place through often immaterial, but not insignificant, investments. Chinese/ Cuban cultural critique finally provokes a series of productive questions for the study of human migration.
Rooted in Paradise? The Meaning of the ‘Tree of Life’ in 1 Enoch 24—25 Reconsidered
Authors: Bachmann Veronika
Published: January 2010

This study explores the meaning of the marvellous tree depicted in chs. 24—25 of the Book of the Watchers. Scholars generally refer to this tree as the ‘tree of life’, mentioned in the paradise story in Genesis 2—3. However, such an interpretation leaves several questions unanswered. Although a few scholars seem to be aware of the problems, a serious reconsideration of the interpretation of the tree has not yet been undertaken. This article proposes linking the tree in chs. 24—25 with wisdom. Evidence for such a conclusion is drawn from the Book of the Watchers itself, but also from other early Jewish writings, including Proverbs and the book of Sirach.
Second Enoch and The Tale of the Blessed Zerubbabel: Two Different Examples of Old Testament Slavonic Apocrypha
Authors: Navtanovich Liudmila
Published: January 2010

This article examines two Old Testament Slavic Apocrypha— Second Enoch, and the much less well known The Tale of the Blessed Zerubbabel—each of which has its own particular origin. While 2 Enoch has been studied for over 150 years, many questions concerning its origin are still under discussion. This article discusses the relation among the Slavic manuscripts to these writings. This article proposes that The Tale of the Blessed Zerubbabel deserves special attention because it is a rare case of direct translation from Hebrew into Slavic. This is especially interesting since the possibility of early Slavic translations from Hebrew (before the fifteenth century) is frequently denied by some scholars.
Hellenistic Imagery and Iconography in Daniel 12.5-13
Authors: Peters Janelle
Published: January 2010

Though often interpreted in light of Mesopotamian traditions, exegetically problematic images in Dan. 12.5-13 have analogues in Hellenistic visual and literary representations of river gods. Hellenistic associations from the preceding chapters of Daniel 10—12 are amplified in the epilogue. Like Hellenistic river gods, the man in linen stands on the river with two attendants and two hands lifted in an attitude of sacrifice, prayer, and prophecy (cf. 1 En. 84.1-6). The man’s orientation suggests an evocation of the Jewish Temple, which was a pressing contemporary concern (cf. 1 Macc. 1.54, 59). Thus, the Danielic author constructs a Hellenistic Jewish framework for the eschatological speculation meant to support Jewish interests over against Roman-controlled Seleucids and Ptolemies.
Consumption as an Emotional Social Control Device
Authors: Gil-Juárez Adriana
Published: January 2010

This article discusses signs that, at least in the West, the consumption metaphor is turning into the constitutive metaphor of our relations with objects, with ourselves, and with others. This would probably be anecdotal were it not that consumption has also taken on the character commonly attributed to emotions: natural, inevitable, inexpressible, irrational, and spontaneous. This apparent lack of social features lends consumption enormous strength and puts it in the position of a human need that requires no justification. At the same time, the lack of social factors defining consumption justifies deploying multiple mechanisms to control and manage subjectivity.
The Mismatch between Current Research Methods and the Nature of Psychological Phenomena
Authors: Smedslund Jan
Published: January 2010

Psychological research and practice both start from what we all know about being human because we are human, what we know about each other because we participate in shared meaning systems (language and culture), and what we know about unique individuals. Practitioners rely on these three sources of knowledge, but researchers try to establish a fourth kind by looking for a limited number of general and empirically based regularities. However, this project runs aground because of four characteristics of personal processes: they are influenced by an indefinitely high number of factors; they are sensitive to outcomes and, hence, always changeable; the regularities that can be found stem from participation in shared meaning systems already implicitly familiar; and they are unique. These characteristics are circumvented in the popular randomized controlled trial research design, but at the expense of practical relevance of the findings.
Is a “Special Psychology” of Practice Possible?
Authors: Lizardo Omar
Published: January 2010

Traditional theories of culture and socialization in the social and behavioral sciences have concentrated on how attitudes and values come to be “internalized” and thus shared by members of a collectivity. The emergence of practice theory challenges the classical theory of socialization and acculturation by shifting the focus of analysis away from explicit symbolic representations and towards tacit, motor-schematic procedures. In this paper I argue that even as they reject the traditional object of older socialization-based accounts, most practice theorists continue to operate with the same outmoded theory of socialization and acculturation inherited from classical sociology. I use Wacquant’s (2004) “carnal ethnography” of becoming a boxer to outline an alternative approach—grounded in recent research in cognitive neuroscience—which provides a more adequate explanation of how practices come to be acquired and transmitted from person to person.
Reconstructing transcriptional regulatory networks through genomics data
Authors: Ning Sun  , Hongyu Zhao
Published: January 2010

One central problem in biology is to understand how gene expression is regulated under different conditions. Microarray gene expression data and other high throughput data have made it possible to dissect transcriptional regulatory networks at the genomics level. Owing to the very large number of genes that need to be studied, the relatively small number of data sets available, the noise in the data and the different natures of the distinct data types, network inference presents great challenges. In this article, we review statistical and computational methods that have been developed in the last decade in response to genomics data for inferring transcriptional regulatory networks.
Paradoxes of Intersectionality: Theorizing Inequality in the Dutch Police Force through Structure and Agency
Authors: Boogaard Brendy , Roggeband Conny
Published: January 2010

While gender and ethnic inequality have been extensively studied in the context of organizations, research into how the intersection of these and other identity categories (re)produces inequality in organizations is still scarce. In this article, we examine inequality from an intersectional perspective in the context of a diverse and multifaceted organization: the Dutch police force. Using data collected through direct observation and focus groups, we analyse how organizational inequality is (re)produced and called into question by drawing on intersecting gender, ethnic and organizational identities. The analysis on the findings through an intersectional lens sheds light onto two paradoxes. The first paradox points to the fact that, by deploying more positive identities to empower themselves, individuals can de facto contribute to reproducing inequalities along those same identity axes. The second suggests, on the contrary, that acknowledging female and ethnic minority officers’ specific valuable competences calls into question inequality along gender and ethnicity within the executive police force. In analysing our material, we approach individuals as agents reflecting and engaging with intersecting identities and the unequal power relations deriving from them. We show that, while they occasionally openly challenge inequality derived from one’s social identity, they often actually reproduce it in order to preserve their own individual power.
Commodity Diversity: Smiling Faces as a Strategy of Containment
Authors: Swan Elaine
Published: January 2010

Arguing that commodities used in diversity management are relatively under-researched, this article examines a popular diversity image—a photograph of diversity as a mosaic—in order to explore what it can tell us about how racial difference is represented visually. In its close reading of the composition of the picture, the article argues that this diversity image acknowledges difference while at the same time it actually homogenizes it. The mosaic inscribes difference within a sameness grid and commodifies it. In so doing, it attempts to disable any political antagonism from minoritized groups, and placate the imagined white viewer, operating as a strategy of containment. The article contributes to critical diversity studies by drawing attention to visual techniques as technologies of ‘race making’ and visual images as important sites of power struggle.
Test of time: Dibs: In search of self
Authors: Jackson Glyn
Published: January 2010

The book, Dibs: In Search of Self, by Virginia Axline was first published in 1964. It is a session-by-session description of a relatively short therapeutic intervention with a troubled and imaginative child named Dibs. The book shows how the therapist and child work together and how the child changes. This article revisits the book from the perspective of the psychoanalytic thinking of a child psychotherapist. It describes the author’s thoughts in re-reading the book, including the clinical content of the book and the motive for the writing of the book, and attempts to explore the contemporary relevance of this account in the context of the author’s current working experience within the NHS.
Health scares: Professional priorities
Authors: Hooker Claire
Published: January 2010

Currently, many health scholars are concerned about health scares. But what do they mean by the term ‘health scare’ — are health scares an identifiable phenomenon and how do we currently understand their causation and consequences? By collecting and analysing published articles about events considered to be health scares, this article maps the current views of scholars on their characteristics and causes. Results show that health scares are generally understood as events characterized by fears of catastrophic consequences but little actual mortality. However, the social and economic impacts of these events have often been severe. This survey shows that health scares can be usefully sorted into six categories, each with identifiable internal dynamics, suggesting different communications strategies to achieve resolution in each category. Using the social amplification of risk framework, the conditions under which risk signals were amplified were traced in general terms among major stakeholders. Simple causes for health scare events could not be identified, though some triggers did emerge. Importantly, public ignorance of real risk, media scaremongering and political inaction could be dismissed as primary explanations, though they were sometimes factors in scare events. Implications for risk communication and for future research on risk and public health are discussed.
Quitting is not an option: An analysis of online diet talk between celiac disease patients
Authors: Veen Mario , te Molder Hedwig , Gremmen Bart , van Woerkum Cees
Published: January 2010

This is an empirical study of the way in which celiac disease patients manage the risk of gluten intake in their everyday life.The article examines naturally occurring conversational data in order to study how patients cope interactionally with constantly being at risk in their day-to-day living. They reject quitting the diet as a valid option, and instead construct a ‘diet world’ in which dietary transgression is presented as an integrated part of everyday life. In this way, patients can manage occasional diet lapses without putting the validity of the diet itself at stake. By examining how the gluten-free diet is treated in interaction, we find out more about the pre-existing everyday strategies that have to be taken into account when new therapies are being introduced.
‘Do your best for me’: The difficulties of finding a clinically effective endpoint in smoking cessation consultations in primary care
Authors: Pilnick Alison , Coleman Tim
Published: January 2010

In recent years in the UK there has been a shift towards doctors practising preventative medicine. Research suggests, however, that doctors are more comfortable in their traditional role, and may be reluctant to engage in discussion of lifestyle issues with patients. In this article, we use data from GPs’ consultations about smoking, recorded prior to the availability of Nicotine Replacement Therapy on NHS prescription, to demonstrate how they attempt to negotiate behaviour change. Using a discursive analytic approach, and drawing particularly on some of the conversation analytic literature on advice giving, we suggest that there are two kinds of difficulties for doctors to overcome: an ambiguity about the interactional endpoint of a discussion about smoking; and the inability to offer ‘expert’ medical help. As a result, doctors struggle with following through their advice to stop in terms of talking about how to do it. We suggest that the efficacy of nicotine addiction treatments may be due not only to their clinical effects, but also because their prescription legitimizes the difficulty in stopping reported by most smokers as an appropriate problem for medical treatment. We discuss the implications of these findings for the management of smoking and other lifestyle issues within primary care consultations.
From consumerism to active dependence: Patterns of medicines use and treatment decisions among patients with atopic dermatitis
Authors: Nørreslet M. , Bissell P. , Traulsen J.M.
Published: January 2010

In this article, findings from in-depth interviews with 12 people diagnosed with atopic dermatitis (AD) are described. The findings describe the range of strategies used to manage atopic dermatitis, including use of conventional medicines. A strong theme identified in informants’ accounts centred on concerns about the risks of illness and long-term use of conventional medicines, which acted as a strong incentive for patients to seek alternatives to conventional treatments. However, despite their significant efforts to do so, patients were eventually forced to return to and rely on conventional medicines because of their efficacy in alleviating and treating symptoms. These findings are discussed in relation to the sociological literature on consumerism, risk and reflexivity in health. We argue that our findings exemplify how living with and managing a chronic illness may not be straightforward and the choices of treatment at hand may be limited. Consequently, this may limit the potential opportunities accruing from adopting a reflexive or consumerist approach to managing illness.
Just Passing Through? International Legal Obligations and Policies of Transit Countries in Combating Trafficking in Persons
Authors: Perrin Benjamin
Published: January 2010

This article identifies several key characteristics of transit countries, including: (1) geographic proximity to attractive destination countries; (2) insufficient legislation and weak enforcement to deal with trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling; (3) liberal immigration policies; and (4) an operational criminal infrastructure to facilitate trafficked persons’ entry into and exit from a country. The challenges faced by transit countries — compared with origin and destination countries — are discussed, and then a focused analysis is provided of the measures that transit countries should pursue to prevent trafficking, prosecute traffickers and protect victims. The article concludes that global efforts to improve the response of destination and origin countries for human trafficking must be expanded to hold transit countries accountable in addressing this problem.
A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Interorganizational Relationships Between Nursing Homes and Emergency Departments: Examples From the Canadian Setting
Authors: McCloskey Rose , Campo Michael , Savage Robert , Mandville-Anstey SueAnn
Published: January 2010

Nursing home residents who experience exacerbations of chronic health conditions or new illnesses must generally go to the emergency department for health care. This reliance on two distinct settings of care requires organizations to engage in an interorganizational relationship, which can be problematic, particularly when each organization has its own governing structures, policies, practices, and culture. Although it is widely acknowledged that interorganizational relationships can be the source of much frustration and conflict, little is known about their underpinnings. In this article, the authors draw on the literature to explore the interorganizational relationship that emerges each time a resident transfers between a nursing home and an emergency department in Canada. The authors apply this knowledge to develop a conceptual model that can be used to explore other interorganizational relationships that are formed when patients move between settings of care.
The Cultural Jigsaw
Authors: Bell Les , Kent Peter
Published: January 2010

The concept of culture as applied to schools is difficult to define and even harder to operationalize in research terms. This article focuses on sixth formers’ perceptions on school culture and seeks to develop a model that will enable researchers to move away from the semantics of organizational culture and to explore more easily the concept of school culture through an analysis of the fragmented forces that help to shape the culture of schools. The article starts by examining these complexities and the extent to which they have produced inherent weaknesses in much research on school culture. It goes on to propose a new model of school culture: five key elements that, when fitted together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, promise a more comprehensive and coherent approach to school culture research. The model is then tested using a small case study of school culture based largely on sixth form student perspectives of the culture of one school. Data is collected on the five parts of the cultural jigsaw through interviews, observation and questionnaires. The subsequent analysis considers both the insights that emerge from the use of the cultural jigsaw model to explore student perspectives on school culture and the efficacy of the model itself as a way forward for research in this area.
Instructional Supervision in Botswana Secondary Schools
Authors: Moswela Bernard
Published: January 2010

This study was conducted to determine how instructional supervision was carried out in schools. The study begins with a brief outline of the decentralization of the inspection system in Botswana. It proceeds to present a brief global historical background of instructional supervision before findings on instructional supervision are discussed. Evidence from the findings, which were obtained from teachers and headteachers through a structured questionnaire and interview, suggests that the environment in which instructional supervision takes place in schools is rather hostile and intimidating to teachers to make any meaningful impression on the improvement of teaching standards. Instructional supervisors’ effectiveness is constrained by the much expanded secondary education system that has seen a massive increase in schools and teachers in a relatively short time. The study concludes with the recommendation that, for instructional supervision to fully benefit schools, it needs restructuring so that the teachers and the headteachers play a more meaningful and effective role.
Education and training for learning disability practice: key messages from contemporary literature
Authors: Crickmore Debbie , Wray Jane
Published: January 2010

Over the last quarter of a century, much attention has justifiably been given to the closure of long-stay hospitals and the subsequent community-based experiences of people with learning disabilities. This has inevitably led to debate regarding how best they might continue to be supported, and by whom. Having identified a range of accredited provision currently available to prepare or develop staff working with adults with learning disabilities in the United Kingdom, this article reviews a range of contemporary literature relating to education in learning disability health and social care that is typically produced and viewed in isolation. Four themes are identified: training social carers, user involvement, (inter)professional practice and work-based learning. Key messages emerge from these themes to form recommendations for the future education of learning disability practitioners across the workforce.
Current perceptions of respite care: experiences of family and informal carers of people with a learning disability
Authors: Mansell Ian , Wilson Christine
Published: January 2010

Access to regular, high-quality respite care has a beneficial impact on a carer’s ability to fulfil their caring role, but provision varies widely. The current study aims to report family and informal carers’ perceptions of respite care services offered to them by their local authority. A mixed method, triangulated design, yielded both quantitative and qualitative data. Members of a parent/carer federation were sent a questionnaire which included a section on ‘respite care’; 151 of 647 responded. Two focus groups were held with 15 carers who had previously completed the questionnaire. The majority of carers reported that their respite needs were not being met. Unmet needs were hampered by the lack of information regarding criteria for access to respite. Discrepancies were evident between professionals and carers on a shared definition of respite care. Carers were unsure of exactly which activities constituted respite care and for whom the service was being provided.
A randomized, blinded, parallel-group, pilot trial of mycophenolate mofetil (CellCept) compared with interferon beta-1a (Avonex) in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis
Authors: Frohman Elliot M. , Cutter Gary , Remington Gina , Gao Hongjiang , Rossman Howard , Weinstock-Guttman Bianca , Durfee Jacqueline E. , Conger Amy , Carl Ellen , Treadaway Katherine , Lindzen Eric , Salter Amber , Frohman Teresa C. , Shah Anjali , Bates Angela , Cox Jennifer L. , Dwyer Michael G. , Stuve Olaf , Greenberg Benjamin M. , Racke Michael K. , Zivadinov Robert
Published: January 2010

Background: Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF, CellCept®) has been utilized as an antirejection agent in transplant recipients and in patients with myriad autoimmune disorders including multiple sclerosis (MS).

Objective: To investigate radiographic and clinical safety involving monotherapy use of daily oral MMF (1 g b.i.d.) versus weekly intramuscular interferon beta 1a (Avonex ® at 30 mcg) in relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS).

Methods: We organized a randomized, serial, 6-monthly, MRI-blinded, parallel-group multicenter pilot study to determine the safety of MMF versus interferon beta monotherapy in 35 untreated patients with RRMS, all of whom exhibited evidence of gadolinium (Gd) enhancement on a screening MRI of the brain. The primary outcome was the reduction in the cumulative mean number of combined active lesions (CAL), new Gd-enhancing lesions, and new T2 lesions on MRI analyses.

Results: Both interferon beta and MMF appeared safe and well tolerated in the majority of patients. There was no difference between MMF therapy and the standard regimen of interferon beta therapy on the primary safety MRI endpoints of the study. However, the MMF group showed a trend toward a lower accumulation of combined active lesions, CAL, Gd and T2 lesions when compared with interferon beta treated patients.

Conclusions: The results from this pilot study suggest that the application of MMF monotherapy in MS deserves further exploration.