bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Including Young Mothers: Limitations to New Labour’s Strategy for Supporting Teenage Parents
Authors: Kidger Judi
Published: June 2004

As part of its Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, New Labour has focused on ensuring more teenage mothers enter education, training or work, in order that they may avoid ‘long term social exclusion’. This paper argues that this conceptualization of the route to social inclusion is problematic for young mothers in that it ignores the structural and contextual barriers to them gaining inclusion, it discounts full-time mothering as a valid option, and it neglects the social and moral elements of their exclusion, while in fact contributing to this. A broader understanding of social inclusion is therefore advocated, which emphasizes the significance of social belongingness and community participation, along-side economic self-sufficiency. Data are drawn from interviews with 14 young mothers who act as volunteer ‘peer educators’ in school sex education, to illustrate the ways in which this wider conceptualization of social inclusion might be more useful in meeting the needs of this group.
The Care and Abuse of Minoritized Ethnic Groups: The Role of Statutory Services
Authors: Forbat Liz
Published: June 2004

Abuse in care relationships is an increasing concern in social policy and service provision. Attention has been drawn to the abuse of cared-for people in their own homes, the abuse of carers by family members and the abuse of people in institutional settings. Drawing on qualitative research with carers/carees from South Asian and African-Caribbean backgrounds, this paper explores a different conceptualization of abuse which moves away from an interpersonal understanding, to one that recognizes structural inequalities as a form of ‘institutional’ abuse of carers and those who receive care. This reconceptualization of abuse gives particular attention to forms of racism and discrimination in the provision of services to minoritized carers/cared-for people. It therefore makes significant contributions to discussions of caring and race equality in the health and social care fields.
‘Culture’ as a Barrier to Service Provision and Delivery: Domestic Violence Services for Minoritized Women
Authors: Burman Erica , Smailes Sophie L. , Chantler Khatidja
Published: June 2004

This paper addresses how domestic violence services to women of African, African-Caribbean, South Asian, Jewish and Irish backgrounds are structured by assumptions about ‘culture’ which produce barriers to the delivery of domestic violence services. Phoenix’s (1987, ‘Theories of Gender and Black Families’, pp. 50-61 in G. Weiner and M. Arnot (eds) Gender Under Scrutiny. London: Hutchinson) discussion of the representation of black women is applied more generally to analyse how discourses of gender and racialization function within accounts of domestic violence service provision. Discourses of both cultural specificity and generality/commonality are shown to intersect to effectively exclude minority ethnic women from such services. Domestic violence emerges as something that can be overlooked or even excused for ‘cultural reasons’, as a homogenized absence; or alternatively as a pathologized presence, producing heightened visibility of minoritized women both within and outside their communities - since domestic violence brings them and their communities under particular scrutiny. Such configurations also inform discourses of service provision to minoritized women. Finally key implications are identified for service design, delivery and development, including the need for both culturally specific and mainstream provision around domestic violence, and the need to challenge notions of ‘cultural privacy’ and ‘race anxiety’ in work with minoritized communities.
Women and Violence: The Effects of Dismantling the Welfare State
Authors: Morrow Marina , Hankivsky Olena , Varcoe Colleen
Published: June 2004

In Canada the idea that social entitlements are important components of citizenship and equality is currently being undermined by neo-liberal state values, expressed in federal and provincial policy shifts that favour self-sufficiency and economic competitiveness over a strong welfare state. Although this trend is dangerous for all populations marginalized through poverty, racism and disability, it is especially dangerous for women who are attempting to escape or avoid physical and sexual violence. Drawing on research conducted in the Canadian province of British Columbia, we argue that the dismantling of the social welfare state alongside policy changes that are affecting how the state responds to violence against women is significantly undermining women’s equality, their safety and the feminist anti-violence movement. Strategies for resistance are discussed and we conclude that ending violence against women requires both local and transnational feminist activism and analyses that examine the interconnections between social and economic policies.
Not ‘Fragrant’ at all: Criminal Justice Responses to ‘Risky’ Women
Authors: Malloch Margaret S.
Published: June 2004

Illegal drug use has been increasingly implicated in offending behaviour and can have adverse social consequences for the individuals who come to the attention of the criminal justice system. However, the consequences are particularly problematic for women, for whom the use of ‘hard drugs’ is considered highly inappropriate, if increasingly common. This paper will consider the ways in which women drug users are depicted as ‘risky’ women, and will highlight policy responses. It will examine the application of concepts of ‘responsibilization’ and consider how this is applied to women drug using offenders. The paper will examine the theoretical basis for the differential depiction of drug users on the basis of gender, and will critically analyse the consequences of this for women drug users throughout their contact with the criminal justice system and related service provisions.
What Matters is who Works: Why Every Child Matters to New Labour. Commentary on the DfES Green Paper Every Child Matters
Authors: Williams Fiona
Published: June 2004

The article argues that, while the Green Paper opens up new possibilities for the way society can transform the lives of children and their parents, it also, at the same time, closes these off. One reason for this is its failure to be explicit about its vision and its values. The article summarizes the main proposals in the Green Paper, and then focuses on three issues: the meaning of respect for children and childhood; whether children are seen as citizens of the present as well as the future; and the place of trust in the idea of the parent-state partnership. The discussion highlights particular tensions between entitlement and responsibility, protection and punishment, and in the scope of education.
A Nitrate-Induced frq-Less Oscillator in Neurospora crassa
Authors: Christensen Melinda K. , Falkeid Grete , Loros Jennifer J. , Dunlap Jay C. , Lillo Cathrine , Ruoff Peter
Published: June 2004

When nitrate is the only nitrogen source, Neurospora crassa’s nitrate reductase (NR) shows endogenous oscillations in its nitrate reductase activity (NRA) on a circadian time scale. TheseNRAoscillations can be observed in darkness or continuous light conditions and also in a frq9 mutant in which no functional FRQ protein is formed. Even in a white-collar-1 knockout mutant, NRA oscillations have been observed, although with a highly reduced amplitude. This indicates that the NRAoscillations are not a simple output rhythm of the whitecollar–driven frq oscillator but may be generated by another oscillator that contains the nit-3 autoregulatory negative feedback loop as a part. In this negative feedback loop, a product in the reaction chain catalyzed by nitrate reductase, probably glutamine, induces repression of the nitrate reductase gene and thus downregulates its own production. This is the first example of an endogenous, nutritionally induced daily rhythm with known molecular components that is observed in the absence of an intact FRQ protein.
Effect of Circadian Phase on Performance of Rats in the Morris Water Maze Task
Authors: Valentinuzzi Verónica S. , Menna-Barreto Luiz , Xavier Gilberto F.
Published: June 2004

The authors examined spatial working memory in the Morris water maze during the activity and rest periods ofWistar rats. Wheel-running activity was measured continuously as a marker of circadian phase. To minimize possible masking effects on performance, animals were placed in constant dim light the day before testing and tested in similar light conditions. Three experiments were run, each of them using animals varying in their previous experience in the water maze. Half of the animals of each experiment were tested 2 to 3 h after activity onset (active group), and the other half were tested 14 to 15 h after activity onset (inactive group). In the three experiments, a significant phase effect was observed in the animals’ performance in the water maze; animals tested in the active phase showed steeper acquisition curves. These phase effects on performance are due to the animals’ search pattern and not to a better acquisition and maintenance of spatial information; rats tested in the inactive phase found the platform faster on the first trial of the test, when the information on the location of the platform had not been presented to the animals. This effect vanished as the amount of training in the pool increased. Finally, swimming speed also showed a temporal effect, suggesting the existence of a phase effect for motivation to escape from the water; rats tested during their inactive phase tended to swim faster. All together, the data suggest a modulating effect of the biological clock on performance in the water maze, particularly when the animals are less experienced.
Genetic Analyses of a Seasonal Interval Timer
Authors: Prendergast Brian J. , Renstrom Randall A. , Nelson Randy J.
Published: June 2004

Seasonal clocks (e.g., circannual clocks, seasonal interval timers) permit anticipation of regularly occurring environmental events by timing the onset of seasonal transitions in reproduction, metabolism, and behavior. Implicit in the concept that seasonal clocks reflect adaptations to the local environment is the unexamined assumption that heritable genetic variance exists in the critical features of such clocks, namely, their temporal properties. These experiments quantified the intraspecific variance in, and heritability of, the photorefractoriness interval timer in Siberian hamsters ( Phodopus sungorus), a seasonal clock that provides temporal information to mechanisms that regulate seasonal transitions in body weight. Twenty-seven families consisting of 54 parents and 109 offspring were raised in a long-day photoperiod and transferred as adults to an inhibitory photoperiod (continuous darkness; DD). Weekly body weight measurements permitted specification of the interval of responsiveness to DD, a reflection of the duration of the interval timer, in each individual. Body weights of males and females decreased after exposure to DD, but 3 to 5 months later, somatic recrudescence occurred, indicative of photorefractoriness to DD. The interval timer was approximately 5 weeks longer and twice as variable in females relative to males. Analyses of variance of full siblings revealed an overall intraclass correlation of 0.71 ± 0.04 (0.51 ± 0.10 for male offspring and 0.80 ± 0.06 for female offspring), suggesting a significant family resemblance in the duration of interval timers. Parent-offspring regression analyses yielded an overall heritability estimate of 0.61 ± 0.2; h2 estimates from parent-offspring regression analyses were significant for female offspring (0.91 ± 0.4) but not for male offspring (0.35 ± 0.2), indicating strong additive genetic components for this trait, primarily in females. In nature, individual differences, both within and between sexes, in the timekeeping properties of seasonal interval timers, and a strong heritable basis thereof, would provide ample substrate for selection to rapidly influence seasonal clocks. Balancing selection in environments where the onset of spring conditions varies from year to year could maintain genetic variance in interval timers and yield interval timers tuned to the local environment.
Effects of Moonlight Exposure on Plasma Melatonin Rhythms in the Seagrass Rabbitfish, Siganus Canaliculatus
Authors: Rahman Md. Saydur , Kim Byung-Ho , Takemura Akihiro , Park Chang-Bum , Lee Young-Don
Published: June 2004

Influences of light-dark (LD) cycle and moonlight exposure on plasma melatonin rhythms in the seagrass rabbitfish, Siganus canaliculatus, a lunar synchronized spawner, were determined by time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay (TR-FIA). When the fish were exposed to a natural LD (12:12) cycle, plasma melatonin levels exhibited a clear daily rhythm, with higher levels at midnight and lower levels during the day. These rhythms were not evident under either constant light (LL) or constant dark (DD) conditions. Plasma melatonin levels under LL condition were low and high under DD condition. These results indicate that plasma melatonin rhythms are driven by LD cycle in this species. When the fish were exposed to the 4 lunar phases, plasma melatonin levels around the new moon were significantly higher than during the first quarter moon and the full moon. Exposure to experimentalnewmoonand full moonconditions caused significant increases and decreases of plasma melatonin levels, respectively. The synchronous rhythmicity of melatonin levels in the plasma support the hypothesis that the seagrass rabbitfish perceives moonlight intensity and responds with secretion of melatonin into the bloodstream.
Light Pulses Do Not Induce C-Fos or Per1 in the SCN of Hamsters That Fail to Reentrain to the Photocycle
Authors: Barakat Monique T. , O’Hara Bruce F. , Cao Vinh H. , Larkin Jennie E. , Heller H. Craig , Ruby Norman F.
Published: June 2004

Circadian activity rhythms of most Siberian hamsters ( Phodopus sungorus sungorus) fail to reentrain to a 5-h phase shift of the light-dark (LD) cycle. Instead, their rhythms free-run at periods close to 25 h despite the continued presence of the LD cycle. This lack of behavioral reentrainment necessarily means that molecular oscillators in the master circadian pacemaker, the SCN, were unable to reentrain as well. The authors tested the hypothesis that a phase shift of the LD cycle rendered the SCN incapable of responding to photic input. Animals were exposed to a 5-h phase delay of the photocycle, and activity rhythms were monitored until a lack of reentrainment was confirmed. Hamsters were then housed in constant darkness for 24 h and administered a 30-min light pulse 2 circadian hours after activity onset. Brains were then removed, and tissue sections containing the SCN were processed for in situ hybridization. Sections were probed with Siberian hamster c-fosand per1mRNA probes because light rapidly induces these 2 genes in the SCN during subjective night but not at other circadian phases. Light pulses induced robust expression of both genes in all animals that reentrained to theLDcycle, but no expression was observed in any animal that failed to reentrain. None of the animals exhibited an intermediate response. This finding is the first report of acute shift in a photocycle eliminating photosensitivity in the SCN and suggests that a specific pattern of light exposure may desensitize the SCN to subsequent photic input.
The 2004 Aschoff/Pittendrigh Lecture: Theory of the Origin of the Pineal Gland— A Tale of Conflict and Resolution
Authors: Klein David C.
Published: June 2004

A theory is presented that explains the evolution of the pinealocyte from the common ancestral photoreceptor of both the pinealocyte and retinal photoreceptor. Central to the hypothesis is the previously unrecognized conflict between the two chemistries that define these cells—melatonin synthesis and retinoid recycling. At the core of the conflict is the formation of adducts composed of two molecules of retinaldehyde and one molecule of serotonin, analogous to formation in the retina of the toxic bis-retinyl ethanolamine (A2E). The hypothesis argues that early in chordate evolution, at a point before the genes required for melatonin synthesis were acquired, retinaldehyde—which is essential for photon capture—was depleted by reacting with naturally occurring arylalkylamines (tyramine, serotonin, tryptamine, phenylethylamine) and xenobiotic arylalkylamines. This generated toxic bis-retinyl arylalkylamines (A2AAs). The acquisition of arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AANAT) prevented this by N-acetylating the arylalkylamines. HydroxyindoleOmethyltransferase enhanced detoxification in the primitive photoreceptor by increasing the lipid solubility of serotonin and bis-retinyl serotonin. After the serotonin. melatonin pathway was established, the next step leading toward the pinealocyte was the evolution of a daily rhythm in melatonin and the capacity to recognize it as a signal of darkness. The shift in melatonin from metabolic garbage to information developed a pressure to improve the reliability of the melatonin signal, which in turn led to higher levels of serotonin in the photodetector. This generated the conflict between serotonin and retinaldehyde, which was resolved by the cellular segregation of the two chemistries. The result, in primates, is a pineal gland that does not detect light and a retinal photodetector that does not make melatonin. High levels of AANAT in the latter tissue might serve the same function AANAT had when first acquired— prevention of A2AA formation.
Locational Adjustments to Pollution Regulations: The South Coast Air Quality Management District and the Furniture Industry
Authors: Thomas Ward F. , Ong Paul
Published: June 2004

Since the 1960s, environmental regulations have played an increasingly large role in regulating the activities of private businesses that generate pollution. There has been little research, however, on the effects of environmental regulations on the location decisions of firms and industries. This article attempts to bridge this gap by examining the impact of air pollution regulations implemented by the South Coast Air Quality Management District in 1988 on the wood household furniture industry in southern California. The regulations created a great deal of uncertainty within the industry. Some firms relocated to Mexico to avoid compliance. Other firms remained in the region and attempted to adjust through product and process innovations. Over time, and with the help of institutions, the industry adjusted through a process of “learning by doing.” A challenge for community economic development practitioners is to build institutions that foster the learning process by which firms adjust to environmental regulations.
New Markets as Informational Asymmetries
Authors: Scorsone Eric , Weiler Stephan
Published: June 2004

The neglected advantages of “new markets” in marginalized rural and inner-city areas have been touted in the policy arena since the early 1990s. Althoughmuch of the motivation has been based on equity, there are potentially strong efficiency arguments for such renewed attention. This article proposes a unique combination of classic and more recent work on informational market failures to understand new markets as examples of informational asymmetries, which can provide the rationale for both private and public support of new market ventures. Furthermore, this perspective can help explain persistent intraregional differences in economic development prospects due to path dependencies inherent in varying informational settings.
Quasi-Experimental Analysis of Targeted Economic Development Programs: Lessons from Florida
Authors: Rogers Cynthia L. , Tao Jill L.
Published: June 2004

The authors highlight three sources of endogeneity bias that typically haunt analyses of local government policies, and offer an empirical methodology for estimating program impacts given such concerns. They investigate Florida’s experience with implementing two common targeted economic development policies, community redevelopment areas (CRAs) and enterprise zones (EZs). Developing a simple application decision model as a guide, they find significant differences in policy implementation for small cities compared with larger cities. Florida’s small-city program implementation offers a unique opportunity to compare areas that received state-level approval for the programs with all areas that qualified for but did not receive designation using a quasi-experimental framework. In so doing, the authors explicitly address the potential for endogeneity bias caused by programrationing on the part of administrators and by nonrandom targeting of distressed areas. Consistent with existing research, they do not find evidence validating the efficacy of targeted development programs for small cities.
A Stakeholder approach to Understanding Economic Development Decision Making: Public Subsidies for Professional Sport Facilities
Authors: Friedman Michael T. , Mason Daniel S.
Published: June 2004

To analyze the politics of economic development decision making through focusing on participants and their interests, this article details a model of stakeholder analysis developed within organization studies by Mitchell, Agle, and Wood for use among policy makers and researchers. Demonstrating the model through the issue of subsidies for the construction of major league sports facilities, a stakeholder map is created to assess the constituent environment based on the degree to which stakeholders possess attributes of power, legitimacy, and urgency.With this map, various situational factors are assessed to demonstrate the utility of stakeholder analysis for decision makers to strategically manage constituent groups and to explain case outcomes and the manner in which policies are determined. Although the findings suggest that decision makers should focus their resources on stakeholders possessing all three attributes, monitoring the environment is essential to identify potential threats and opportunities.
The Effects of Foreign Capital on State Economic Growth
Authors: Torau Megan A. , Goss Ernest
Published: June 2004

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data show that the nation’s rate of yearly output growth between 1995 and 1999 was more than 50% higher than for the period 1987 to 1994. Using state-level data, this study examines foreign capital’s contribution to this upturn in growth. Pooling data for the 50 states in a regression framework showed that foreign capital accounted for 2.6% of overall state output growth for the full period. Foreign capital made no contribution between 1987 and 1994 but accounted for 3.7% of output growth between 1995 and 1999. Furthermore, estimates show that foreign capital had a much larger impact on the manufacturing sector, accounting for more than 16.7% of state manufacturing output growth between 1995 and 1999.
The Role of Contamination in Central City Industrial Decline
Authors: Howland Marie
Published: June 2004

This study examines the role that land contamination plays in hindering central city redevelopment. The author tracked all sales and selling prices and the presence of contamination in one industrial area of about 5,580 acres in southwest Baltimore. The results indicate that after the mid-1990s, contaminated parcels have been selling and the market has adjusted to contamination by lowering prices. Out of 144 parcels that sold over the past decade, positive, market-clearing prices have been found for 45 parcels with either confirmed or historical-reasons-to-suspect contamination. Interviews with owners and brokers of parcels on the market for 2 years or more and analysis of the data indicate that sites with above-market asking price; that are small and oddshaped; with inadequate road access for modern trucks; that have outdated water, sewer, and telecommunications connections; and with incompatible surrounding land uses are the most likely to remain unsold after 2 years.
Evaluating Manufacturing Extension: A Multidimensional approach
Authors: Davila Natalie A.
Published: June 2004

This article provides a multidimensional approach to evaluating the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program as administered in the Chicago metropolitan area. The MEP concept is based on the provision of technology-related services to address many of the manufacturing productivity-improvement barriers. Using a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques, this research demonstrates that delivery of these services has been somewhat limited in practice. After demonstrating that the Chicago Manufacturing Center and MEP are not delivering primarily technologyrelated services to small and midsized manufacturing firms, the author raises the question of legitimacy. This finding suggests that the program needs to be redesigned to more adequately account for current economic and market conditions, taking into account the way small and midsized manufacturers process information and make decisions.
Changing Patterns of Task Discretion in Britain
Authors: Gallie Duncan , Felstead Alan , Green Francis
Published: June 2004

Task discretion has held a central place in theories of work organization and the employment relationship. However, there have been sharply differing views about both the factors that determine it and the principal trends over time. Using evidence from three national surveys, this article shows that there has been a decline in task discretion since the early 1990s. This contrasts with an increase in other forms of employee involvement such as direct participation and consultative involvement. Many of the arguments in the literature about the factors that favour higher task discretion are supported by our evidence - in particular those emphasizing the importance of skill levels and the broader organizational ethos with respect to employee involvement. However, such factors do not account for the decline in task discretion, implying that existing theories fail to address some of the crucial determinants. It is tentatively suggested that it may be necessary also to take account of macro factors such as competitive pressure, public sector reform programmes and the growth of accountability structures.
Caring for Nothing
Authors: Baines Donna
Published: June 2004

Unwaged work is a widespread practice in the pro-market, non-market public and non-profit social services in Canada. Under performance-based models of public management new forms of work organization have standardized social services work and expanded the use of volunteers, including the volunteer labour of paid employees. Increasingly routinized work makes it easier for unwaged volunteers to assume work, and for managers to supervise it. New developments include heightened expectations from management and a willingness of workers to perform volunteer work in their own or other agencies. The article suggests that the unwaged social services workforce operates along a continuum with ‘compulsion’ at one end and ‘coercion’ on the other. As workers’ identities and knowledge base are tied to notions of altruism and caring, and there are often implicit threats to their continued employment, most workers are not refusing unwaged work. Rather they see this and other forms of unpaid work as resistance against an increasingly alienating society, as well as a way to meet the needs of clients, relatives and friends.
Avoiding the ‘McJobs’
Authors: Lindsay Colin , McQuaid Ronald W.
Published: June 2004

Service employment plays an increasingly important role in the UK economy. However, it has been suggested that some forms of service work are unattractive for many unemployed job seekers, and particularly those formerly employed in ‘traditional’ sectors. The argument has been made that these job seekers and others may be reluctant to pursue the type of positions that have become known as ‘McJobs’ - de-skilled, entry-level service jobs which often offer poor pay and conditions. This article examines whether there is such a reluctance amongst job seekers to pursue service work, and whether it differs between job seeker groups. It also compares differences in job seekers’ attitudes towards entry-level work in three areas of the service sector - retail, hospitality and teleservicing or ‘call centre work’.The analysis is based upon a survey of 300 registered unemployed people in Scotland. A substantial minority of respondents ruled out entry-level service work in retail and hospitality under any circumstances. Older men, those seeking relatively high weekly wages and those without experience of service work (and who perceived themselves to lack the necessary skills) were particularly reluctant to consider these jobs. Differences between job seekers were much less apparent in relation to attitudes to call centre work, which was more unpopular than other service occupations across almost all groups. The article concludes that policy action may be required to encourage job seekers to consider a broader range of vacancies and to provide financial and personal support for those making the transition into work in the service economy. However, on the demand side, service employers must seek to ‘abolish the McJob’, by ensuring that even entry-level positions offer realistic salaries, decent work conditions and opportunities for personal development.
Non-Standard Work in Two Different Employment Regimes
Authors: Olsen Karen M. , Kalleberg Arne L.
Published: June 2004

This article examines organizations’ use of non-standard work arrangements - fixed-term employees hired directly by the organization, workers from temporary help agencies (THA), and contractors - in the United States and Norway. Our analysis is based on information obtained from surveys of 802 establishments in the US and 2130 in Norway. We find that Norwegian establishments make greater use of non-standard arrangements than the US establishments; we argue that this is due in part to the greater overall restrictive labour market regulations on hiring and firing regular workers, and greater demand for temporary labour resulting from generous access to leaves of absence, in Norway. We also find that certain institutional factors have a similar impact in both countries. First, establishments in the public sector are more likely to use direct-hired temporary workers and less apt to use contractors and THAs; this pattern is particularly striking in Norway, but is also evident in the United States. Second, highly unionized establishments tend to have the lowest use of non-standard arrangements in both countries.
Masculinity at Work
Authors: Simpson Ruth
Published: June 2004

This article presents the findings of a research project on the implications of men’s non-traditional career choices for their experiences within the organization and for gender identity. The research is based on 40 in-depth interviews with male workers from four occupational groups: librarians, cabin crew, nurses and primary school teachers. Results suggest a typology of male workers in female dominated occupations: seekers (who actively seek the career), finders (who find the occupation in the process of making general career decisions) and settlers (who settle into the career after periods of time in mainly male dominated occupations). Men benefit from their minority status through assumptions of enhanced leadership (the assumed authority effect), by being given differential treatment (the special consideration effect) and being associated with a more careerist attitude to work (the career effect). At the same time, they feel comfortable working with women (the zone of comfort effect). Despite this comfort, men adopt a variety of strategies to re-establish a masculinity that has been undermined by the ‘feminine‘ nature of their work. These include re-labelling, status enhancement and distancing from the feminine. The dynamics of maintaining and reproducing masculinities within the non-traditional work setting are discussed in the light of recent theorizing around gender, masculinity and work.
Stepping-Stones or Traps?
Authors: Scherer Stefani
Published: June 2004

This article addresses the question of whether the first job functions as a ‘stepping stone’ or as a ‘trap’. It does so by using individual longitudinal data to estimate the consequences on future occupational attainment of entry into the labour market via (a) ‘under-qualified’ jobs or (b) via temporary contracts. A cross-national comparison of West Germany, Great Britain and Italy allows assessment of the impact of different labour market structures on this allocation process. With regard to ‘under-qualified’ positions, the findings are not consistent with the stepping-stone hypothesis but provide some support for the entrapment hypothesis. Despite the greater mobility chances of over-qualified workers, the initial disadvantage associated with status-inadequate jobs is not fully overcome during their future careers. The article shows, however, that the negative effects are not due to the mismatch as such but rather to the relatively lower level positions. These effects are mediated by the national labour market structure, with the British flexible model providing the best chances of making up for initial disadvantages, and the more tightly regulated and segmented markets in Germany and Italy leading to stronger entrapment in lower status positions. No negative effects of the type of contract are found for later occupational positions in any of the countries.
Social Housing Managers and the Performance Ethos
Authors: Casey Rionach , Allen Chris
Published: June 2004

In sociology, ‘the professional project’ is understood as a collective endeavour of occupational groups that only succeeds if those groups possess, and control access to, a unique stock of knowledge. Urban sociologists have been critical of public housing managers’ collective endeavours to present themselves as a profession because they use generic knowledge and common sense in their work. They also argue that ‘the professional project’ of housing management is being further under-mined by the ‘performance ethos’, since this now allows service managers to exert even more control over what public housing managers do and thus de-skills them even more. Our argument is that this analysis of the impact of the performance ethos is based on a conceptually limiting view of power as a repressive force that enforces ‘blanket restrictions’ on group activity, i.e. what professional groups are free to do. Conversely, we adopt a Foucauldian view of power because it better explains our research findings. Foucault suggests that power does not simply repress group activity. Power is also appropriated by individuals who use it to redefine themselves, e.g. who and what they are. We draw on our empirical data to show how individual housing managers were appropriating the performance culture in productive ways to achieve their own individual ends (i.e. to ‘work on’ their professional selves so as to re-define themselves and thus their individual claim to professional status). We use this analysis to argue that an individualized (as opposed to collective) ‘professional project of the self’ is emerging in housing management that has not yet been adequately captured in the sociological literature.
Popularization Discourse and Knowledge about the Genome
Authors: Calsamiglia Helena , Van Dijk Teun A.
Published: June 2004

In this article, we examine some properties of the interface between meaning and knowledge in popularization discourse in the Spanish press aboutthe sequencing of the human genome. After a multidisciplinary account of popularization in terms of text, context and knowledge, we analyze some semantic aspects of 42 texts in El País, focusing especially on denominations, explanations and the description of new objects. Besides the usual metaphors conceptualizing the genome in terms of a code or a book, and sequencing as decodification, we especially found that descriptions of new objects tend to be organized using a limited number of fundamental categories, such as Location, Composition, Size, Quantity, Appearance and Functions. We surmise that these meaning categories correspond to underlying cognitive categories that organize the schematic structure of knowledge about things. Both in the discursive and the epistemic analysis of these texts, we are specifically also interested in the strategies of specialized journalists for the management of knowledge: what knowledge is being presupposed, what knowledge is being ‘reminded’or actualized and what knowledge is expressed and newly constructed.
The Meaning and Effects of Discourse about Genetics: Methodological Variations in Studies of Discourse and Social Change
Authors: Condit Celeste M.
Published: June 2004

Studies seeking to explore the implications of the discourse of medicalgenetics using four different methodologies are overviewed. Research on genetics discourse using critical methods, audience studies, persuasion studies and institutional studies suggest results that are at odds with one another. Rather than selecting one approach based on a preference for the methodology itself or the results it provides, a clearer picture of how genetic discourse may function is provided by integrating the findings of the various methods.
‘Race’ and the Human Genome Project: Constructions of Scientific Legitimacy
Authors: Mccann-Mortimer Patricia , Augoustinos Martha , Lecouteur Amanda
Published: June 2004

At the public announcement of the completion of a draft map of the human genome (June 2000), Craig Venter, Head of Celera Genomics and chief private scientist involved with the Human Genome Project, claimed that ‘race’ was not a scientifically valid construct. This statement, based on an analysis of the genomes of five people of different ethnicities, has not served to end the considerable discussion and debate surrounding the concept of ‘race’. Using a social constructionist and critical discursive approach, this study analyses text and talk associated with the debate on the scientific validity of the concept ‘race’. Given the problematic and highly contested nature of this concept, the present research examines, closely and in detail, a range of ways in which constructions of truth are worked up in scientific discourse. In particular, we analyse the ways in which empiricist and contingent repertoires within scientific discourse are mobilized to establish and contest claims of objectivity and facticity. We also examinea range of rhetorical devices deployed by protagonists in the debate to warrant particular truth claims including quantification rhetoric and the ‘Truth Will Out Device’ (TWOD). We conclude that despite the promissory representation of the Human Genome Project as having produced scientific evidence to discredit the biological legitimacy of ‘race’, the concept is likely to persist in both popular and scientific usage.
‘The Scientists Think and the Public Feels’: Expert Perceptions of the Discourse of GM Food
Authors: Cook Guy , Pieri Elisa , Robbins Peter T.
Published: June 2004

Debates about new technologies, such as crop and food genetic modification (GM), raise pressing questions about the ways ‘experts’ and ‘ nonexperts’ communicate. These debates are dynamic, characterized by many voices contesting numerous storylines. The discoursal features, including language choices and communication strategies, of the GM debate are in some ways taken for granted and in others actively manipulated by participants. Although there are many voices, some have more influence than others. This study makes use of 50 hours of in-depth interviews with GM scientists, nonexperts, and other stakeholders in the GM debate to examine this phenomenon. We uncover rhetorical devices used by scientists to characterize and ultimately undermine participation by non-experts in areas including rationality, knowledge, understanding and objectivity. Scientists engage with ‘the public’ from their own linguistic and social domain, without reflexive confirmation of their own status as part of the public and the citizenry. This raises a number of interesting ironies and contradictions, which are explored in the article. As such, it provides valuable insights into an increasingly important type of discourse.
‘It’s Just One of the Best Tests that We’ve Got at the Moment’: the Presentation of Nuchal Translucency Screening for Fetal Abnormality in Pregnancy
Authors: Pilnick Alison
Published: June 2004

Much of the sociological research that has been carried out into antenatal screening has been highly critical of the practical implementation of these programmes, particularly regarding issues of choice. However, most of this research is based on interviews conducted with participants after screening has taken place. This article presents a preliminary exploration of the interactional presentation of a novel antenatal screening procedure, known as nuchal translucency (NT) screening, for Down’s syndrome. The data are analysed from a conversation analytic perspective, with a focus on the ways in which screening is introduced, explained and discussed by those involved. The issue of choice, and of the need to actively make a decision, are explicitly topicalized by midwives in these consultations. However, it is argued that the choice that is presented in this setting often appears to be between ‘old’ and ‘new’ screening practice, rather than a straightforward choice between screening and not screening.
The Economic Hegemonization of Bt Cotton Discourse in India
Authors: Yamaguchi Tomiko , Harris Craig K.
Published: June 2004

Among the various transgenic crops being researched and developed for India, Bt cotton is the only crop commercialized at present. Social actors in various professions and positions have been expressing their expectations of what will or will not happen if agrifood biotechnologies are or are not commercially introduced. In their discourse, these social actors have identified diverse and complex issues extending from questions of equity (how the benefits of commercialization will be distributed between growers in different social and economic strata, and how the environmental or health risks will be distributed and redistributed among different groups in the population) to questions of development (how to improve agricultural productivity so as to meet the growing food demands, and how to maintain national autonomy in agricultural technology). This article explores the discourse concerning Bt cotton in India by examining the interpretations advocated by various social actors. The concept of frame is used to analyze the content of print media and interviews. Analysis of the Bt cotton discourse shows that the dominant actors have shifted over time away from government and industry officials and toward farmers, and that the dominant frame has shifted over time from governmental process to economic impact.
A Model of Selection between Stimulus and Place Strategy in a Hawkmoth
Authors: Balkenius Anna , Kelber Almut , Balkenius Christian
Published: June 2004

In behavioral experiments, the hawkmoth Deilephila elpenor can learn both the color and the position of artificial flowers. When very similar colors are used, moths select the correct color during the first test on a given day, thus using a stimulus strategy, but after repeated rewards, they switch to a place strategy and choose the flower in the position where they received the reward. When dissimilar colors are used, the moths continue to select flowers based on color and ignore position. We show how a computational model can reproduce the behavior in the experimental situation. The aim of the model is to investigate which learning and behavior selection strategies are necessary to reproduce the behavior observed in the experiment. The model is based on behavioral data and the sensitivities of the moth photoreceptors. The model consists of a number of interacting behavior systems that are triggered by specific stimuli and control specific behaviors. The ability of the moth to learn the colors of different flowers and the adaptive processes involved in the choice between stimulus-approach and place-approach strategies are reproduced very accurately by the model. The model has implications both for further studies of the ecology of the animal and for robotic systems.
Motor Skill Acquisition Under Environmental Perturbations: On the Necessity of Alternate Freezing and Freeing of Degrees of Freedom
Authors: Berthouze Luc , Lungarella Max
Published: June 2004

In a recent study on the pendulation of a small-sized humanoid robot (Lungarella & Berthouze, 2002a, b), we provided experimental evidence that starting with fewer degrees of freedom enables a more efficient exploration of the sensorimotor space during the acquisition of a task. The study came as support for the well-established framework of Bernstein (1967), namely that of an initial freezing of the distal degrees of freedom, followed by their progressive release and the exploitation of environmental and body dynamics. In this paper, we revisit our study by introducing a nonlinear coupling between environment and system. Under otherwise unchanged experimental conditions, we show that a single phase of freezing and subsequent freeing of degrees of freedom is not sufficient to achieve optimal performance, and instead, alternate freezing and freeing of degrees of freedom is required. The interest of this result is twofold: (1) it confirms the recent observation by Newell & Vaillancourt (2001) that Bernstein’s (1967) framework may be too narrow to account for real data; (2) it suggests that perturbations that push the system outside its postural stability or increase the task complexity may be the mechanism that triggers alternate freezing and freeing of degrees of freedom.
Kuder Career Search: Test-Retest Reliability and Consequential Validity
Authors: Ihle-Helledy Kristin , Zytowski Donald G. , Fouada Nadya A.
Published: June 2004

The Kuder Career Search with Person-Match (KCS) has a variety of applications; however, the KCS is best suited to help an individual in generating a list of reasonable occupational possibilities. The KCS includes a radical innovation in interest measurement because individuals are not compared to a group within an occupation but are compared to normative responders with a similar KCS response pattern. The primary purpose of this investigation was to examine the test-retest reliability and consequential validity of the KCS. As a group, the internal consistencies for all KCS activity preferences demonstrated adequate consistency. In general, temporal reliability indices for the KCS activity preferences were quite strong. Consequential validity was incorporated with one outcome measure due to the exploratory nature of this portion of the study. The consequential validity of the KCS demonstrated in this study is promising and needs to be more carefully (i.e., methodologically) assessed in future studies.
Five-Factor Model of Personality and Career Exploration
Authors: Reed Mary Beth , Bruch Monroe A. , Haase Richard F.
Published: June 2004

This study investigates whether the dimensions of the five-factor model (FFM) of personality are related to specific career exploration variables. Based on the FFM, predictions were made about the relevance of particular traits to career exploration variables. Results from a canonical correlation analysis showed that variable loadings on three roots were generally consistent with predictions. One source of covariation involved association between conscientiousness/extraversion/low neuroticism and career search self-efficacy/career information seeking. A second source involved association between openness and a lack of career information seeking. The third source involved association between neuroticism/openness and self-exploration. Results are discussed relative to the FFM and implications for career counseling and assessment.