bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Uses of Whiteness: What Sociologists Working on Europe Can Draw from US Research on Whiteness
Authors: Garner Steve
Published: April 2006

Whiteness studies are trans-disciplinary, but here the focus is principally on sociology and social history. Firstly, I identify, elucidate and synthesize the major ways in which whiteness in this literature has hitherto been problematized, to provide a sociological view of the multidisciplinary work so far. Five interpretations are identified; whiteness as absence, as content, as a set of norms, as resources and as a contingent hierarchy. Secondly, I make some proposals regarding the whiteness problematic’s degree of pertinence to European settings, with a brief discussion of the Irish case. Finally, I argue that whiteness is useful if conceptualized in a way that sets it within the parameters of studies of racism.
Challenging Dualism: Public Professionalism in ‘Troubled’Times
Authors: Gleeson Denis , Knights David
Published: April 2006

In recent decades neo-liberal reform has significantly impacted on public sector professionals. Sociological interest in such impact has tended to focus on professionals as subjects of such reform: as either de-professionalized ‘victims’ who feel oppressed by the structures of control or strategic operators seeking to contest the spaces and contradictions of market, managerial and audit cultures. Such a dualism is reflective of wider separations of agency and structure that have plagued sociology down the years. Our approach challenges modernizing agendas which seek to re-professionalize or empower professionals without examining the changing conditions of their work or the neo-liberal conditions which frame their practice. It also questions the policy outcomes of reconciling the dualism between agency and structure through a ‘third way’ politics that purports to remove the tensions and conflicts between professions and various stakeholders, the private and the public, and markets and civic society.
Pills, Power, People: Sociological Understandings of the Pharmaceutical Industry
Authors: Busfield Joan
Published: April 2006

This article examines how sociology can contribute to an understanding of the work, power and impact of the pharmaceutical industry. Drawing in particular on Latour’s theoretical and empirical analysis of science, in conjunction with a more explicit consideration of power, it examines the scientific ‘fact making’ involved in the clinical trials of drugs designed to assess their safety and effectiveness, assessments that are the basis for securing approval for their release onto the market. It also examines post-approval drug assessments and the fuller evaluation of a drug that emerges with time. It shows how the industry’s control over this science, especially in the pre-approval stage, has helped to encourage extensive, and often excessive, use of pharmaceuticals.
A Sociology of Technology Governance for the Information Age: The Case of Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Advertising and the Internet
Authors: Fox Nick , Ward Katie , O’Rourke Alan
Published: April 2006

In a civil society, the governance of technology is a matter of law and regulation, but also of responsibility and accountability, within which issues of public safety and security must be balanced against individual and collective rights. Within sociology, studies have not fully examined the complexity of how governance is achieved, and how environmental changes may threaten governance systems. This article explores the negotiated character of technology governance in a case study of consumerism and the pharmaceutical industry. This industry is highly regulated, but, in the information age, traditional patterns of governance are challenged, and new strategic alliances between stakeholders may emerge. Using qualitative approaches, we explore the emergent governance processes, and conclude that governance is a dynamic process, forever breaking down and being reinvented to address societal changes. We suggest that this theoretical framework and methodology can form the basis for a productive sociology of governance.
From Fatherhood to Fathering: Transmission and Change among British Fathers in Four-generation Families
Authors: Brannen Julia , Nilsen Ann
Published: April 2006

Drawing upon biographical-narrative research involving case studies of British families in which four generations were alive at the same time, the article examines change and continuity among fathers and sons, focusing in detail upon one family.The article examines the scheduling of fatherhood in the life course of three generations; the ways in which they talked about ‘fathering’ and fatherhood when their children were young; and the transmission of fathering within families. The particular case, a family of low-skilled men, demonstrates how structural changes and cultural resources combine in the negotiation of a model of ‘hands-on fathering’ in the current father generation. The article draws out some theoretical aspects of the analysis; in particular, how structural and cultural changes and gender intersect differently for different social classes.The theoretical insights depend upon a biographical approach which emphasized the changing context and the ways in which each generation acted upon that context.
Intimate Transitions: Transgender Practices of Partnering and Parenting
Authors: Hines Sally
Published: April 2006

This article begins by examining sociological studies of intimacy and suggests that, despite a rise of interest in non-normative practices of sociality, transgender lives and experiences are absent from analyses of changing social relationships. Drawing on research data in the form of three case studies, I explore the experiences of intimacy within the context of gender transition: first to consider the impact of gender transition upon partnering relationships, and second to reflect upon how gender transition is negotiated within parenting relationships. I conclude by suggesting that the incorporation of transgender experiences into analyses of contemporary practices of intimacy enables a richer understanding of wider social changes in patterns of sociality.
“You Should Know Her But You Don't”
Authors: Chandler Susan
Published: April 2006

Nevada Shakespeare Company in a new theatre production, A SingleWoman, has brought to life Jeannette Rankin and her struggle for peace and for workers, women, and children. Drawing on excerpts from the script and interviews with Jeanmarie Simpson and Cameron Crain, the play's author and director, respectively, this article seeks to bring into sharper focus the uncompromising struggle for peace and against militarism that engaged many of socialwork's early leaders.
Gender and War
Authors: Jansen Golie G.
Published: April 2006

Gender inequality is magnified in situations ofwar, andwomen are disproportionately disadvantaged in terms of personal safety, access to resources, and human rights. This article summarizes the effects of armed conflict on women and women's greater vulnerability to health and mental health concerns because in war, women's bodies become a battleground. UN Security Council Resolution 1325 is introduced as an international framework to address women's participation in solutions to war, reconstruction, and nation building. The article also indicates ways in which socialworkers can be part of implementing this resolution to defend the human rights of women.
Remembering the Women in Rwanda
Authors: Logan Sadye
Published: April 2006

There are too many easy reasons to want to forget horrors, especially the horrors that constitute genocide. Living through a situation develops a different level of awareness and response than being distant and not personally implicated in it. This realization highlights the need to recognize that it is not because of the lack of compassion that we tend to “forget” so quickly, but rather it is the lack of right understanding about how to make a difference that is complicit in our cognitive failures. The intent of this reflection is to provide a context for remembering Rwanda and for providing a healing perspective on similar disasters. In this regard, a brief overview and historical context of the conflicts that led to the killing in Rwanda is presented, followed by a discussion of the survival issues experienced by the women of Rwanda during the 100 days of terror and death and the implications of a healing perspective.
Harriet Tubman
Authors: Crewe Sandra Edmonds
Published: April 2006

Harriet Tubman's widely recognized successful work for the Underground Railroad overshadowed many other noteworthy contributions she made as a peacemaker and stateswoman. She rose above the societal limitations imposed by being enslaved and a woman and made unparalleled contributions to the cause of social justice. Tubman's commitment to family unification was a driving force for the perilous trips she made for the Underground Railroad. Her legacy includes being a formidable commander and strategist in the U.S. Civil War. In addition, Tubman was instrumental in helping many African Americans transition to freedom and economic sufficiency during the pre–and post–Civil War Reconstruction eras. In her late sixties, Tubman purchased land to fulfill her vision of providing housing and supportive services for older and indigent African Americans. For more than 20 years, she worked tirelessly using selfhelp, mutual aid, and partnerships to fulfill her dream of the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged.
Feminine Virtue and Feminist Fervor
Authors: Hensley Melissa Anne
Published: April 2006

Because of the success of woman suffrage and concerns about World War I, women activists became involved in promoting peace. The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was a prominent organization in this movement, taking an active part in both national and international political processes. Issues of interest to the WILPF during the 1930s included international disarmament, investigation of the munitions industry, and racial justice. Red-baiting, along with the unpopularity of pacifism prior to World War II, lessened the influence of the WILPF. However, today's socialworkers can learn much from the WILPF's efforts of 70 years ago.
Afghan Women in Exile and Repatriation
Authors: Ross-Sheriff Fariyal
Published: April 2006

In-depth interviews with 60 repatriated Afghan refugee women on their experiences before and duringwar and exile revealed their significant roles and responsibilities. Thewomen were active in protection, safety, survival, and the reestablishment of their families during this time. Contrary to media presentations of Afghan women as helpless victims, they were social actors who used their networks to face the challenges of war, supported their families during exile, and participated in repatriation. Themes that emerged included the significance of cultural and religious norms and expectations, the social entitlement to receive support, and the obligation to provide support within the family and within their ethnic community. The women's stories reflect resilience in times of stress and optimism for the future that were based on their religious faith. Religion and culture are two important elements in developing social work practice with Afghan women in the aftermath of war and during repatriation.
The Life and Work of Elise Boulding
Authors: Morrison Mary Lee
Published: April 2006

The life and work of sociologist Elise Boulding, a matriarch of the 20th-century peace research movement, has been a celebration of the unique contributions of women in visualizing, making, and building global peace. Women's acculturation toward nurturing, networking, and connections have afforded them opportunities for learning the skills that are most needed for building a better world. The founder of numerous organizations and networks in peace research, peace studies, women's studies, futures, and activism, Boulding has made major contributions to the contemporary field of social reform.
Rape as a Tactic of War
Authors: Milillo Diana
Published: April 2006

For centuries, the rape of women has been used as a tactic of war to advance one group's political, economic, social, or religious position over another. Systematic mass rape devastates individual women and destroys the fabric of families and communities. This article argues that the systematic nature of rape as a tactic of war exists against a backdrop of rigid cultural norms of gender and women's sexuality, social dominance and power within group conflict, and a soldier's social identity as a man and a member of a particular military.
Speaking Truth to Power
Authors: Klosterman Eleanor M. , Stratton Dorothy C.
Published: April 2006

Jane Addams is known for founding Hull-House and for her leadership in the emerging social work profession. But little scholarly attention has centered on the values that influenced her emergence as an internationally known social activist and pacifist. The findings include a congruity with Quaker beliefs and early social work values but no attempt to identify herself as a member of either group. Despite intense opposition, Addams led the early 20th-century women's peace movement, unwavering in her belief that women's nurturing experiences led them to value life deeply and that women's involvement in world political affairs would bring about a more humane and peaceful society.
On the Battleground of Women's Bodies
Authors: Snyder Cindy S. , Gabbard Wesley J. , May J. Dean , Zulcic Nihada
Published: April 2006

This article critically reviews the literature pertaining to mass rape during times of war to identify and understand the unique factors that promote it. Agreater understanding of these factors is considered a productive initial step toward proffering effective solutions to address this significant problem. The former Yugoslavia, particularly Bosnia-Herzegovina, serves as a case study against which this literature is reviewed. The authors conclude that women's experience of rape in war, like the abuse of women's human rights, is often determined by the intersection of a variety of factors, such as age, race, class, religion, ethnicity, and nationality. Future studies should further explore how these complex variables relate to each other in an attempt to understand the horrific crimes that are often perpetrated against women during wartime.
Perceived Social Support and HIV/AIDS Medication Adherence Among African American Women
Authors: Edwards Lorece V.
Published: April 2006

HIV/AIDS incidence is increasing more quickly among women than any other segment of the population. The typical woman with HIV/AIDS is young, in her late 20s, economically challenged, and of childbearing age. Adherence to HIV therapies is critical if patients are to achieve and maintain virologic suppression. The author recruited HIV/AIDS-infected African American women from an outpatient clinic to investigate the women's perceptions of social support and how it affected their medication adherence. She collected data through tape-recorded interviews using a semistructured guide and journaling over a 2-week period. Facilitators of adherence included supportive family members and having young children. Barriers to adherence included perceived stigma, feeling unloved or uncared for, relationship turbulence, and having a husband who was also HIV positive. Although participants reported being “fairly” satisfied with the quality of support they received, emotional support and often instrumental support were most desired and wanted.
The Specifics of Coping: Parents of Daughters With Anorexia Nervosa
Authors: Honey Anne , Halse Christine
Published: April 2006

In this article, the authors report on an interview study in which parents described the coping strategies they used to deal with the demands of having a daughter diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. They compare parents’ accounts with commonly used categorizations in quantitative studies of parental coping and adjustment. The study indicates that parents attribute multiple, complex, and unique motives to their actions that problematize quantitative constructions of types of coping. Parents often defined their actions differently and reported using coping strategies that were not considered or measured by the most widely used quantitative coping instruments. The analysis indicates that when the focus is on understanding and assisting parental coping in particular circumstances, situated, contextspecific analyses are necessary to design measures that accurately reflect parents’ coping efforts.
Parental Schemata in the Management of Children With Attention Deficit–Hyperactivity Disorder
Authors: Bull Colin , Whelan Thomas
Published: April 2006

The authors describe the management schemata held by parents of children diagnosed with attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They conducted semistructured interviews with 10 mothers of children who had ADHD and used interpretative, phenomenoogical analysis on the interview transcriptions to identify the schemata that guided the parents’ management practices. The predominant schemata were the perceived difference of children with ADHD, parental aspirations, the necessity of medication, psychological management, parental authority, role of the father, mothering concept, and community support. The authors discuss these schemata in the context of the current controversy as to whether ADHDis best regarded as a medical or a developmental disorder. They conclude that the parents’ schemata conformed to current child-raising theory, but as a consequence, the parents might not consider social factors involved in the development of ADHD sufficiently. The authors suggest that this restricted perspective limits the parents’ options for managing the condition.
The Meaning of Support as Narrated by Family Carers Who Care for a Senior Relative at Home
Authors: Stoltz Peter , Willman Ania , Udén Giggi
Published: April 2006

The authors’ aim in this study is to illuminate the meaning of support as narrated by family members who care for a senior relative at home. This study originates from a context of advanced in-home palliative care in Sweden. Twenty individuals who cared for a senior relative at home participated. Narrative interviews resulted in a text, which the authors analyzed in three recurring phases, naive understanding, structural analyses, and comprehensive understanding, using a phenomenological hermeneutical method. They formulated two themes from the analysis: Experiencing a togetherness with others in caring and Sensing togetherness with oneself in caring. The meaning of support was understood here as Sensing togetherness. In the comprehensive understanding, the authors further illuminate this meaning using literature on the concepts of friendship, inner strength, and manageability through the sense of coherence theory. They provide suggestions for relevance to practice and further research.
Storying Disability and Impairment: Retrospective Accounts of Disabled Family Life
Authors: Goodley Dan , Tregaskis Claire
Published: April 2006

Much previous British research on disability and its effects on family life has seen impairment as a personal or family tragedy. In this article, the authors describe current English research that is asking families about their experiences of professional health and social care support since the birth of their disabled child. Interviews with the families uncovered a range of themes that challenged the personal tragedy approach. Far from being passive recipients of care, these are ordinary families seeking appropriate information from professionals to support them in their ordinary parenting role. For them, the professionalized care service should be based on negotiated relationships of equality that give respect to parental perspectives on what is right for their child. The authors conclude that these data are useful in describing ongoing barriers to enabling care provision and in offering a positive view of disabled family life.
Striving for Therapeutic Relationships: Parent-Provider Communication in the Developmental Treatment Setting
Authors: Watson Kathleen Clotfelter , Kieckhefer Gail M. , Olshansky Ellen
Published: April 2006

The purpose of this grounded theory study is to develop a beginning substantive theory that explains the communication process between parents of children receiving center-based services for developmental delays and disabilities and the professional providers of those services. Communication is defined broadly as including both content and relationship dimensions. Twenty parents and 14 providers described their experience of communication with one another. The core phenomenon constructed from the data was striving for therapeutic relationships within a context of uncertainty. Both parents and providers operated in a context of uncertainty regarding the child and his or her development and prospects for the future as well as their expectations of each other. Both parents and providers used strategies of balancing, reading the cues, questioning, managing uncertainty, and managing the sessions. The outcomes were relationships that were valued by the extent to which they were perceived as therapeutic to parents and child.
The Role of Rapport: Lessons Learned From Conducting Research in a Primary Care Setting
Authors: Gaglio Bridget , Nelson Candace C. , King Diane
Published: April 2006

Conducting research in a primary care setting is difficult because of the competing demands primary care offices have to manage in the current medical environment. Every primary care office has its own relationship and reporting structures, norms, and ways of conducting daytoday affairs. Regardless of the setting, when carrying out qualitative and/or mixedmethods research, researchers must have rapport with the individuals or group of individuals they will be working with to carry out the research. In this article, the authors describe the different approaches that research staff have used to create rapport with practice staff that were not only participants in the study but were also responsible for the delivery and implementation of this effectiveness study.
The Myth of Creating an Integrative Story: The Therapeutic Experience of Holocaust Survivors
Authors: Shamai Michal , Levin-Megged Orna
Published: April 2006

In this article, the authors explore how Holocaust survivors experience therapy. The qualitative method by which the authors illuminate the therapeutic experience is in-depth interviews with 11 survivors. They base their analysis on the phenomenological tradition and use psychodynamic perspective as a heuristic device, generating five main themes: (a) knowing and not knowing the story of the trauma, (b) therapy as a reproduction of the trauma and its aftermath, (c) the fight to keep the therapist as a split object, (d) the perception of therapy as interminable, and (e) creating alternative narratives. Overall, the findings contradict the traditional perception, in which the goal of therapy is defined as one of integrating the traumatic narrative with the entire life story. Successful therapy, as was found in the present study, is often experienced when the traumatic narrative is put into a capsule separated from other parts of the life story.
Writing Qualitatively, or the Demands of Writing
Authors: van Manen Max
Published: April 2006

Have you ever said this or heard someone say this: “I have done all of my data analysis— I just have to write it down.” Or, “I just have to write it up”? I will suggest that within the context of phenomenological inquiry, it is not necessarily helpful to try to assist researchers learning “how to write down” their reflections or “how to write up” their results. What should be more helpful is learning “how to write.” Qualitative writing may be seen as an active struggle for understanding and recognition of the lived meanings of the lifeworld, and this writing also possesses passive and receptive rhetoric dimensions. It requires that we be attentive to other voices, to subtle significations in the way that things and others speak to us. In part, this is achieved through contact with the words of others. These words need to touch us, guide us, stir us.
Youth subculture and social exclusion
Authors: Terpstra Jan
Published: April 2006

In this article a detailed description is given of the subculture of a group of socially-excluded boys in The Netherlands. The relevance of some classical theories on youth subculture is assessed for understanding the lifestyles of today’s disadvantaged youth, especially in a developed welfare state. The subculture of the boys is not only an adaptation to their disadvantaged position, but is also an autonomous factor in its reproduction. However, whereas in the 1970s, according to Willis, the subculture of resistance prepared the lads for lower-class jobs, nowadays these boys derive their identity, hopes and masculinity mainly from industrial manual jobs of the past. Four factors are distinguished that are relevant to understand the boys’ lifestyle choices: considerations of prestige among the boys, their relations with dominant institutions, the relations between the boys’ age groups and the reactions of relevant adults to the behaviour of the boys.
Social capital and civic action
Authors: Fahmy Eldin
Published: April 2006

In recent years the apparent decline in civic and political engagement across western societies has attracted growing attention among academics, policy makers and social commentators. The condition of young people’s political consciousness and attitudes to political engagement has attracted especial attention. Trends in the reproduction of social capital have been proposed as a key driver of declining political engagement and civic mindedness in western democracies. Drawing upon data from the UK General Household Survey, this article explores the relationship between social capital and civic action among young British citizens at the beginning of the 21st century. In particular the following questions are addressed: how important is social capital in explaining the level and type of young people’s civic action? Are certain forms of social capital more important than others in explaining patterns of civic action? Is the relationship between social capital and civic action dependent upon individuals’ position in the life cycle?
Regimes of youth transitions
Authors: Walther Andreas
Published: April 2006

In a context of de-standardized transitions to work, young people are required to take more individual decisions, a process in which their subjectivities become increasingly important for social integration. While it can be assumed that this is a general trend, this article seeks to analyse the impact of different ‘transition regimes’ upon young people’s biographical experiences. Based on three comparative studies related to young people’s transitions to work, firstly, different ‘transition regimes’ are outlined, and secondly, the extent to which regime characteristics are reflected in young people’s accounts of their experiences is analysed; simultaneously, the underlying question of the extent to which young people perceive the possibilities of making subjectively meaningful choices is addressed, along with how this decision-making process is facilitated by flexibility and secured against the risk of failure and exclusion.
Unlawful or just awful? Young people’s experiences of living in the private rented sector in England
Authors: Lister Diane
Published: April 2006

Young people increasingly comprise the key demand group for private rented accommodation in England and are overrepresented in the sector. For many young people this is their first experience of independent living, managing a tenancy and dealing with a landlord. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with young people, this article focuses upon their experiences of living in the private rented sector in England. The article explores how young people’s experiences of independent living are often spoiled as a result of poor property conditions and management practices. The article raises issues about the quality of accommodation and repairs services provided in the private rented sector in England, as well as highlighting ineffective legislation and regulatory controls and insecurity of tenure. The article questions whether the private rented sector as it currently operates in England, is an appropriate housing solution for young people given the risks and nature of the conditions with which they often have to live.
An invisible problem
Authors: Klein Jessie
Published: April 2006

This article shows how ‘normalized masculinity’ and its effects are operative but invisible in public discussions of targeted violence against girls. In school shootings, dating violence and sexual harassment, boys assaulted girls who rejected them or otherwise caused the boys gender distress. Against this backdrop, the analysis situates recent school shootings, dating violence and sexual harassment on a continuum of unrecognized violence against young girls. Through a media analysis of 13 United States school shootings that took place between 1996 and 2002, it shows how gender played a significant influencing role. It then puts forward a framework for efforts to prevent violence rooted in damaging masculinity ideologies.
The role of recognition in the desistance process
Authors: Gadd David
Published: April 2006

This article explores the intersubjective dynamics that foster desistance from crime. It explains that the concepts of ‘identification’ and ‘recognition’—as defined by Jessica Benjamin—illuminate how psychic change can come about despite social continuity within offenders’ lives. The value of Benjamin’s approach is illustrated through the analysis of the case of a former far-right activist. The article shows that in order to desist from crimes that involve a symbolic ‘othering’ (e.g. hate crimes) offenders have to reclaim the psychic parts of themselves that are projected onto victims. The article concludes that when those deemed ‘other’ are able to withstand and survive hostile projections the possibilities for psychic change among desisting offenders are enhanced.
Challenging current conceptions of law and order
Authors: Hinds Lyn
Published: April 2006

An analytical account of the politicized meaning of law and order is presented in this article using two theoretical frameworks to account for the politicization of law and order from the 1960s and 1970s onward. Debates that emerged from the 1990s that seek to explain the success of the politicization of the ‘get tougher’ movement are also discussed. In addition to its politicized meaning, law and order has an older and broader historical meaning, which is focused on the front-end of the criminal justice system. Findings from empirical analyses of crime control variables are presented that show too little attention has been paid to the historical meaning of law and order that is a more representative measure of state activities in crime control.
The criminology of hybrids
Authors: Brown Sheila
Published: April 2006

This article develops insights from cybercultures theory, post/feminisms, information theory and the social theories of science and technologies in a criminological context. The hierarchical relationship between ‘people’ and ‘things’ is questioned, suggesting directions beyond science, constructivism and deconstruction in criminology. Criminology has frequently been overly preoccupied with theoretical binary oppositions and this has resulted in a commitment to boundary maintenance strategies within criminological knowledge. The complexities of contemporary technological culture, however, demand precisely the dissolution of binary oppositions and, more particularly, human/technical splitting in the apprehension of the phenomenon of crime. The possibilities of actor-network theory are considered in relation to crime and law, and the article concludes by suggesting the need for a criminology of hybrids that is concerned with the mapping of technosocial networks, their actants and assemblages.
Transcendence Among Gay Men: Implications for HIV Prevention
Authors: Martin James I.
Published: April 2006

This article presents a critique of HIV prevention research and practice with gay men in light of reports that HIV seroprevalence appears to be increasing in this population. Central to this critique is the possibility that people may have a need for transcendence, which some gay men might seek to satisfy through sexual experience. Theories underpinning HIV prevention generally do not account for such nonrational aspects of sexuality, and they fail to acknowledge the impact of differential values on people’s health behaviours.
The Emergence of Gay Identities in Contemporary Turkey
Authors: Bereket Tarik , Adam Barry D.
Published: April 2006

The recent emergence of gay ( gey) identities raises core questions implicating globalization processes with the diffusion of models of sexual identity from other countries, and enjoins a vigorous debate on how and why gay identities are gaining increasing circulation around the world, challenging longstanding traditions of sexual organization. Relying on the voices of 20 Turkish men in Ankara, we argue that there is no one-way determinism in the adoption of sexual identity from the global to the local and that the meaning of gey is variable, entailing diverse ways of imagining, portraying, and seeing oneself. Turkish society today shows a heterogeneous set of co-existing and shifting social forms of inter-male connection, including some men who act consistently in terms of one or the other social form, and others who tack between them according to situation or personal preference.
Poetic World-Making: Queer as Folk, Counterpublic Speech and the ‘Reader’
Authors: Fraser Suzanne
Published: April 2006

The television programme Queer as Folk depicts both scandalous, indecorous behaviour, and respectable, even conventional, forms of love. It constitutes what Michael Warner, in his influential essay ‘Publics and Counterpublics’, has described as public speech and, at the same time, it sits both inside and outside his category of counterpublic speech. As such, it operates as a boundary case through which the distinction between public and counterpublic can be analysed. In this article, this analysis is conducted both as a means of building upon Warner’s theory, and to offer insights into the ways in which young gay male viewers in Sydney, Australia watch the programme and, linked to this, how they understand sexuality in relation to transformational politics. In the process, the article troubles Warner’s distinguishing of counterpublic from public by investigating the rather neglected question of the ‘reader’ in his designations of the counterpublic.
Bringing the U-Haul: Embracing and Resisting Sexual Stereotypes in a Lesbian Community
Authors: Gordon Liahna E.
Published: April 2006

I examine the rules of sex and dating in a midwestern white middle-class lesbian community. I interview participants and describe how they comply with these rules, which largely (though not entirely) correspond with stereotypes of white middle-class female sexuality. The participants also describe how through the community rules they resist heterosexual norms of sexuality, which primarily means resistance of stereotypical male sexuality. The women seem unaware of the ways in which they participate in the process of creating and reifying these rules within their community, perceiving themselves instead to be completely ignorant of them. I examine these patterns within the context of the lesbian ‘sex wars’, concluding that the legacy of lesbian feminism has remained surprisingly strong in this community.
HIV on TV: Conversations with Young Gay Men
Authors: Farrell Kathleen P.
Published: April 2006

This article addresses how some gay undergraduate males make sense of a fictional story about an HIV serodiscordant gay couple struggling to negotiate their romantic relationship in light of sharp opposition from friends and family. In small focus groups, study participants watched and discussed this HIV storyline from the American premium cable series, Queer as Folk. These conversations revealed what these young men thought about this representation, the ‘safe sex’ message they perceived the TV show to be imparting, as well as their fears and misunderstandings about HIV, in general. In addition to gaining a better understanding of how gay audiences may consume these HIV related stories and incorporate them into their own lives, these findings illuminate the possibilities for HIV prevention through television entertainment that appeals specifically to young, gay audiences and the usefulness of focus groups, as a research method, in the promotion of HIV awareness.
Sexual Antimonies and Parent/Child Sex Education: Learning from Foreclosure
Authors: Frankham Jo
Published: April 2006

In the journal Sexualities, Jackson and Scott (2004, ‘Sexual Antimonies in Late Modernity’, Sexualities 7[2]: 233-48) express scepticism that current mores in relation to sexuality are increasingly liberal and ‘open’; instead, they suggest there are a number of antimonies or contradictions evident. One of the themes they raise relates to parental intentions (and ‘failures’) to be ‘open’ about sex with their children. I explore this antimony via data collected from parents about the sex education of their young children. I first describe responses to young children’s verbal questions about sex; the second section considers parental responses to questions raised by ‘protosexual play’. As the negotiations that take place between parents and children reveal, many interventions in this area are actually interesting inversions of a straightforward educational endeavour. Instead of ‘openness’, the forms of parental disclosure and foreclosure of sexual information enact a series of closures or enclosures in relation to the exchange of sexual information in the family. The article goes on to consider possible explanations and effects of these antimonies.
Alexander H. Leighton's and Jane Murphy's Scientific Contributions in Psychiatric Epidemiology: A Personal Appreciation
Authors: Tremblay Marc-Adélard
Published: April 2006

This article introduces the special issue of Transcultural Psychiatry in honour of Alexander Leighton. A sketch of his research career is followed by a discussion of the work of his wife, Dr. Jane Murphy, first on St. Lawrence Island, near the Bering Strait, and later as a key figure in the Stirling County project. A brief conclusion highlights the main aspects of their joint legacy to cultural psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology.
Johns Hopkins Legionary: Leighton's Lineage and Legacy
Authors: Lumsden David Paul
Published: April 2006

What is the relationship between sociocultural environment and psychiatric disorder? In particular, what is ‘social disintegration’, its characteristics, dangers and possible remediation? Alexander Hamilton Leighton and Jane Murphy's interdisciplinary contributions derive from those consuming concerns. This article contextualizes the famous Stirling County Study by suggesting that a hitherto unrecognized shaping role was played by William Henry Welch of Johns Hopkins and The Rockefeller Foundation, especially so through the example of Hopkins's epidemiological ‘demonstration areas'. The article then details the Stirling County Study itself, including its relations with Dalhousie University and Canadian psychiatry. The concluding section identifies and assesses a wider set of achievements and contributions forming Leighton and Murphy's legacy to our several but interdependent fields of cross-cultural endeavour.
Alexander Leighton and the Evolutionary Perspective
Authors: Barkow Jerome H.
Published: April 2006

A comparison of the theoretical approach of Alexander H. Leighton with that of current work in evolutionary psychology and psychiatry reveals key similarities. For both, a core human nature/ psychology is assumed to underlie human behavior. Individuals may vary with regard to the salience of components of that core, which in any event are differentially expressed in response to varying cultural/environmental factors. As with many of today's evolutionists, Leighton's research involved natural settings combined with the collection of rigorously analyzed quantitative data. Evolutionary psychiatrists would benefit greatly from studying Leighton's work, particularly in connection with the hypothesis that psychopathology is a product of our departure from the environments in which we evolved.
Longitudinal Research to Promote Effective Refugee Resettlement
Authors: Beiser Morton
Published: April 2006

Canada's relative generosity in admitting refugees and fairness in considering refugee claims has earned this country an enviable reputation. However, having opened its doors to those selected, Canada's resettlement policies and programs fail to provide for their needs, and to promote their optimal adaptation. Based on a decade-long investigation of the resettlement of more than 1300 Southeast Asian refugee – ‘Boat People’ – the current report examines how research concerning (a) the impact of pre-migration trauma; (b) the mental health impact of social resources such as the like-ethnic community, refugee sponsorship programs, and language training; and (c) individual coping strategies such as suppressing the past, can contribute both to theory and to improving policy and practice. The presentation acknowledges the contributions of Dr. Alexander H. Leighton by demonstrating the importance of his insistence on the need for a longitudinal perspective both for conducting research and for planning programs and services.
The View from the Hogan: Cultural Epidemiology and the Return to Ethnography
Authors: Waldram James B.
Published: April 2006

Alexander Leighton's seminal work has clearly demonstrated how ethnographic experience provides the rich cultural context in which epidemiological data are best interpreted. This article reviews recent trends in cultural epidemiology, and especially the emergence of the EMIC (Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue) as a quantitatively oriented tool designed to assess culture. It is suggested that such efforts do not reflect more recent trends in culture theory, and tend to view ‘cultures’ as easily bounded and largely homogenous units to facilitate the generation of quantitative data. It is argued that cultural epidemiologists should take a step back and ask, ‘what is the culture in question here?’ and ‘how do I know if it is appropriate to place any given member of my sample into a specific cultural category?’ before proceeding with any ‘culturally appropriate’ instrument. The answer to these questions begins with a return to ethnography as a means to elucidate and describe culture within the context in which it is being presented and studied.
Environmental Sensitivity: Equivocal Illness in the Context of Place
Authors: Fletcher Christopher M.
Published: April 2006

This article presents a phenomenologically oriented description of the interaction of illness experience, social context, and place. This is used to explore an outbreak of environmental sensitivities in Nova Scotia, Canada. Environmental Sensitivity (ES) is a popular designation for bodily reactions to mundane environmental stimuli that are insignificant for most people. Mainstream medicine cannot support the popular models of this disease process and consequently illness experience is subject to ambiguity and contestation. As an ‘equivocal illness’, ES generates considerable social action around the nature, meaning and validity of suffering. Sense of place plays an important role in this process. In this case, the meanings that accrue to illness experience and that produce salient popular disease etiology are grounded in the experience and social construction of the Nova Scotian landscape over time. Shifting representations of place are reflected in illness experience and the meanings that arise around illness are emplaced in landscape.
Speaking About Culture in Multiple Voices
Authors: Corin Ellen , Bibeau Gilles
Published: April 2006

As a mark of gratitude to Alexander Leighton, this article engages him in a dialogue, reopening several debates that were enriched by his research and reflections on ethics, the ‘aesthetic dimension’ of the research enterprise, the processes that mediate between collective and individual variables, and his strong distrust of theory. The authors discuss some of the features of Leighton's perspective that they have retained and transformed in their own work on community responses to chronic mental illness in rural Quèbec, on the course of schizophrenia in India, and on culture and psychosis in clinical settings in Montrèal. The challenge remains the one that Leighton identified: how can findings derived from different disciplines be made to co-ordinate? The authors argue that this question must be answered from within the centre of each discipline rather than from their frontiers or zones of interface.
Beyond the ‘New Cross-cultural Psychiatry’: Cultural Biology, Discursive Psychology and the Ironies of Globalization
Authors: Kirmayer Laurence J.
Published: April 2006

The ‘new cross-cultural psychiatry’ heralded by Kleinman in 1977 promised a revitalized tradition that gave due respect to cultural difference and did not export psychiatric theories that were themselves culture bound. In the ensuing years, the view of culture within anthropology has continued to change, along with our understanding of the relationship of biological processes to cultural diversity, and the global political economic contexts in which mental health care is delivered. This article considers the implications of these new notions of culture, biology and the context of practice for theory in cultural psychiatry. The future of cultural psychiatry lies in advancing a broad perspective that: (a) is inherently multidisciplinary (involving psychiatric epidemiology, medical anthropology and sociology, cognitive science and social psychology), breaking down the nature/culture dichotomy with an integrative view of culture as a core feature of human biology, while remaining alert to cultural constructions of biological theory; (b) attends to psychological processes but understands these as not exclusively located within the individual but as including discursive processes that are fundamentally social; and (c) critically examines the interaction of both local and global systems of knowledge and power. Globalization has brought with it many ironies for cultural psychiatry: Transnational migrations have resulted in cultural hybridization at the same time as ethnicity has become more salient; the call for evidence-based medicine has been used to limit the impact of cultural research; and cultural psychiatry itself has been co-opted by pharmaceutical companies to inform marketing campaigns to promote conventional treatments for new populations. Cultural psychiatry must address these ironies to develop the self-critical awareness and flexibility needed to deliver humane care in shifting contexts.
Core activity
Authors: Connell R W
Published: April 2006

Contemporary discussions of cultural change and crisis in the role of intellectuals require a sociology of intellectual labour. Life-history interviews were undertaken with a group of Australian intellectual workers whose jobs require them to deal reflexively with culture. Their careers are conditioned by global marginality and changing gender relations. Their labour process is partly collectivized, with a wide spectrum of engagement with technology. Individualized work survives and a market-oriented ‘ bricoleur’ pattern is seen. A pervasive sense of anxiety is found, sometimes amounting to a sense of crisis, and uncertainty about the ‘core activity’ of intellectual workers. There are indications of cultural crisis, but they do not take the form suggested by postmodernist theory. Rather they reflect the impact of the neo-liberal market agenda, which in reshaping institutions and labour processes tends to make traditional intellectual identities unsustainable.