What is Real and What is Realism in Sociology?

In the physical sciences a realist ontology rests on our ability to demonstrate the actual and real nature of material entities. Realist metaphysics of social entities, most influentially Bhaskar's critical realism, attempt to provide a related philosophical foundation for the social sciences. This paper examines the central issue of what is real about society it concludes that social relations and the organisations they constitute do exist and discusses the conditions of their demonstration. Realist interpretations of Bourdieu's theories are given particular attention in an argument that accepts the necessity of social realism but remains cautious about the development of methodologies able to provide effective demonstration.     

Treatment‐as‐usual in effectiveness studies: What is it and does it matter?

Andrée Löfholm C, Brännström L, Olsson M, Hansson K. Treatment‐as‐usual in effectiveness studies: What is it and does it matter? A hallmark of an evidence‐based practice (EBP) is the systematic appraisal of research related to the effectiveness of interventions. This study addressed the issue of interpreting results from effectiveness studies that use treatment‐as‐usual (TAU) as a comparator. Using randomised controlled studies that evaluate the effectiveness of multisystemic therapy as an illustrative example, we show that TAU includes a wide variety of treatment alternatives. Estimated treatment effects on recidivism suggest that TAU seems to contain a greater variation in underlying risk than experimental conditions, supporting the hypothesis that the content of TAU could affect outcomes. Implications for the realisation of an EBP are discussed.     

Gender and Health Inequalities: What Are They and What Can We Do About Them?

The subject of gender and health inequalities is contested territory in health policy, research and practice. Yet there is a dominant approach which I describe as a form of technocratic rationality. Its application imposes significant limitations because it represents the problem of gender and health in terms of measurable sex differences in relation to health service access and health outcomes. In doing so, it fails to address and explain the social dynamics that generate the problem. I propose an alternative approach that originates in Australian women's health policies of the 1980s. These emphasised the inequalities between men's and women's participation in mainstream health policy, planning, management and delivery of services, and women's concomitant marginalisation. Recent sociological study offers support for this perspective suggesting that the endogenous organisational dynamics (or logics) within public health institutions provide a better way of understanding what the problem of gender inequalities in health is, and how we might fix it.     

Identity Conflicts and Value Pluralism—What Can We Learn from Religious Psychoanalytic Therapists?

Does the way we think about our personal self‐complexity affect how we accept others? Researchers have offered various conceptualizations of how individuals manage their complex identities, while others have identified links between cognitive complexity and acceptance of outgroups. This paper integrates the two bodies of work by positing a route by which personal identity conflicts may lead to cognitive and cultural pluralism. For individuals committed to multiple identities perceived as conflicting, the intra‐psychic experience of value conflicts may lead to a recognition of self‐complexity, which is then transposed from the personal domain to the social one and expressed as a pluralistic attitude towards others. This argument find support in a study of Israeli Jewish Orthodox psychoanalytic therapists who belong to what they perceive as non‐pluralistic religious groups, yet express value pluralism, which they attribute to their complex identities. One of the educational implications of this study is that facilitating engagement with internal complexity, multiple identities and personal value conflicts may promote pluralistic thinking for individuals in religious societies.     

What gives? Cross-national differences in students’ giving behavior

This study is targeted to understanding the giving of time and money among a specific cohort - university students across 13 countries. It explores predictors of different combinations of giving behaviors: only volunteering, only donating, neither, as compared to doing both. Among the predictors of these four types of giving behavior, we also account for cross-national differences across models of civil society. The findings show that students predominantly prefer to give money than to volunteer time. In addition, differences in civil society regimes provide insights into which type of giving behavior might dominate. As expected, in the Statist and Traditional models of civil society, students consistently were more likely to be disengaged in giving behaviors (neither volunteering nor giving money) in comparison to students in the Liberal model who were more likely to report doing ‘both’ giving behaviors. An important implication of our findings is that while individual characteristics and values influence giving of time and money, these factors are played out in the context of civil society regimes, whose effects cannot be ignored. Our analysis has made a start in a new area of inquiry attempting to explain different giving behaviors using micro and macro level factors and raises several implications for future research.     

Activation and ‘coercion’ among Swedish social assistance claimants with different work barriers and socio‐demographic characteristics: What is the logic?

Nybom J. Activation and ‘coercion’ among Swedish social assistance claimants with different work barriers and socio‐demographic characteristics: What is the logic? The study analysed how the work barriers and socio‐demographic characteristics of both activated and non‐activated social assistance claimants influence their participation in activation and exposure to coercion, measured as two opposite indicators – sanctions and exemptions. The study covered 372 social assistance claimants in four municipalities during a period of 1 year. The results suggest that resource activation, which entails education and/or work practice in regular workplaces, often targets claimants who lack work motivation, whereas job activation, which aims at quick entry into the labour market, targets young claimants and claimants who lack formal skills (education and/or work experience). Swedish men older than 25 years appear to run the highest risk of facing sanctions irrespective of participation in activation. Exemptions vary more than sanctions between activated and non‐activated claimants. The results are discussed in terms of five logics operating in social work.     

What Is Going on in There? Question and Response

No abstract available for this article.     

COVID-19 and care homes in England: What happened and why?

In the context of very high mortality and infection rates, this article examines the policy response to COVID-19 in care homes for older people in the UK, with particular focus on England in the first 10 weeks of the pandemic. The timing and content of the policy response as well as different possible explanations for what happened are considered. Undertaking a forensic analysis of policy in regard to the overall plan, monitoring and protection as well as funding and resources, the first part lays bare the slow, late and inadequate response to the risk and reality of COVID-19 in care homes as against that in the National Health Service (NHS). A two-pronged, multidimensional explanation is offered: structural, sectoral specificities; political and socio-cultural factors. Amongst the relevant structural factors are the institutionalised separation from the health system, the complex system of provision and policy for adult social care, widespread market dependence. There is also the fact that logistical difficulties were exacerbated by years of austerity and resource cutting and a weak regulatory tradition of the care home sector. The effects of a series of political and cultural factors are also highlighted. As well as little mobilisation of the sector and low public commitment to and knowledge of social care, there is a pattern of Conservative government trying to divest the state of responsibilities in social care. This would support an interpretation in terms of policy avoidance as well as a possible political calculation by government that its policies towards the care sector and care homes would be less important and politically damaging than those for the NHS.     

What price compromise?

This paper identifies, and tests experimentally, a prediction of the Nash bargaining axioms that may appear counterintuitive. The context is a simple bargaining problem in which two players have to agree a choice from three alternatives. One alternative favours one player and a second favours the other. The third is an apparently reasonable compromise, but is in fact precluded as an agreed choice by the Nash axioms. Experimental results show that agreement on this third alternative occurs rather often. Our subjects’ behaviour could be interpreted as the paying of an irrationally high price, according to the Nash axioms, in order to reach a compromise agreement.     

What Policies Advance Infants and Toddlers? Evidence to Inform State and Federal Options

A variety of civic actors—government, associations, and local agencies—work to help parents advance the vitality of our youngest children. Empirical findings accumulating over the past half-century identify benefits for infants and toddlers stemming from three policy models: paid leave for parents after a newborn arrives; regular pediatric assessments, including home visiting; and quality caregivers situated in homes or centers. We review what is known about the effects of these policies, along with constituent elements of quality (mediators) that operate proximal to children's health, cognitive, and emotional growth. Much has been learned about how such collective action, carried out by local organizations, advance infant–toddler development. Methodological advances foster new knowledge: moving closer to causal inferences and pinpointing social mechanisms that enrich infant–toddler settings. Less well understood is how policy levers can move the malleable elements of program quality to raise the magnitude or sustainability of program effects. We note the benefits of income-support efforts for fragile families, while urging new work on how economic dynamics touch the capacity of parents and caregivers to better nurture infants and toddlers.