Mindfulness meditation: a path of transformation & healing

As nurses, we have the unique privilege of witnessing and nurturing the healing process of the whole person--mind, body, and spirit. Teaching mindfulness meditation is a nursing intervention that can foster healing. The consistent practice of mindfulness meditation has been shown to decrease the subjective experience of pain and stress in a variety of research settings. Formal and informal daily practice fosters development of a profound inner calmness and nonreactivity of the mind, allowing individuals to face, and even embrace, all aspects of daily life, regardless of circumstances. By emphasizing being, not doing, mindfulness meditation provides a way through suffering for patients, families, and staff. This practice allows individuals to become compassionate witnesses to their own experiences, to avoid making premature decisions, and to be open to new possibilities, transformation, and healing.     

Public interest or private agenda?: A meditation on the role of NGOs in environmental policy and management in Australia

Non-government organisations (NGOs) have come to assume an important role in environmental policy in Australia. This paper considers the institutional impacts of an enlarged and formal role for NGOs in environmental governance. To foreground the analysis that follows, the paper theorises: (i) the structural democratisation of western societies which provides the preconditions for civic approaches to environmental governance; (ii) civil society organisations as political actors; and (iii) the link between non-state associations and democracy. Against this background, the paper surveys some of the ways in which NGOs are being formally involved in environmental policy and management in Australia. The paper proceeds to identify a series of risks associated with these approaches. The paper concludes by calling for a more nuanced and critical appraisal of the role of NGOs in environmental policy so political space might be reserved for the public interest and to ensure that the democratic effects of civil society are not diminished.     

“The words of my mouth,and the meditation of my heart”: The mindset of gamblers revealed in their language

The colorful language of gambling and gaming is essential to creating the players' world; in analyzing it we understand that world. This fringe vocabulary or slanguage is examined in connection with standard language, and is analyzed for its origins, its humor, and for the attitudes it expresses and transmits. This language is seen as a neglected indicator ofl'histoire de mentalité, the mindset of gamblers. It is also suggested that other factors—body language, paralanguage, stock expressions composed of standard words (jokes, catch phrases, etc.)-hold clues to the outlook, superstitions, behavior, the rational and irrational beliefs of gamblers.     

Pluriactivity in the Moshav:: family farming in Israel

In the past several years, pluriactivity has become quite widespread among moshav farming households, especially those located within Metropolitan Tel Aviv's rural fringe. Agricultural income has been on the decline and other sources of income have appeared. This paper has a threefold aim: To identify major patterns of income sources among Moshav's households; to explain the underlying causes for choosing pluriactivity as an income-producing strategy; and to explain the reasons for the specific choice of pluriactivity patterns adopted.An analysis of the activities of moshavim¹ located in the Sharon Region indicates that the further the moshav from the metropolitan area, the greater the role of agriculture in total family income. Within a pluriactivity strategy, the main additional sources of income are wage employment and small business activity, carried out either on or off the moshav. The main factors stimulating the increase in pluriactivity are the decline in agricultural income and the desire to take advantage of vocational training. This trend is supported by other factors, such as the availability of premises for alternative uses as well as the ease of operating a business from the home.The divergence in pluriactivity patterns may indicate that the frequency of mixing agriculture with other income sources may be a temporary option adopted by households for which agriculture has been a mainstay. Those households may shift away from agriculture in the short or mid-term. We would argue that at present, for the majority of those no longer devoted solely to agriculture, pluriactivity is also aimed at helping to sustain agricultural activity. In such cases, farmers utilise the resources acquired from non-agricultural employment for investment in agriculture, including the upgrading of equipment and other assets.     

Women in Bangladesh:

Women's lives in Bangladesh are governed by a combination of religious, customary and secular law, as well as social class. In customary practice, the interaction of Islam and Hiduism in southern Asia has resulted in the adoption of the most restrictive aspects of each religion with respect to the status of women. Secular law formally recognizes equal rights for women, but undermines this recognition by special provisions which treat women as dependent legal entities. But whereas poor, rural women have few opportunities for change, middle- and upper-class women are beginning to emerge, in small but significant ways, from traditional roles.     

EAPs in Transition:

This paper is a survey report of EAP purpose and practices. One hundred and eighty-two (n = 182) randomly selected EAP practitioners responded to a questionnaire designed to measure purposes, services, staff specialties and characteristics, service users, and related background information. The findings provide an empirical evaluation of the "state of the art" of the growth, development and trends in the employee assistance field. Also, while the findings indicate that EAPs are in transition several basic functions common to all are identified.     

Homelessness in America:

Homelessness is one of the most intense social crises facing the United States since the onset of the Great Depression more than 60 years ago. Estimates of the total population of homeless are argued to range from 250,000 to upwards of three million, with a pro- jected rate of increase of approximately 24% per year. The spectrum of diversity within the population mirrors that of society in general, except that the problems are more severe, as illustrated by the difficul- ties facing the homeless mentally ill. Thirty-eight percent of the homeless are single-parent, primarily female-headed families, thus re- presenting the fastest growing segment of the population. This paper will consider the phenomenon of homeless as a contemporary social issue, and include recommendations for public policy and social response.     

Preface: Foresight in 2020: Race and Gender in the Upcoming Election

This essay introduces contributions to a special issue of Sociological Forum titled “Foresight in 2020: Race and Gender in the Upcoming Election.” All articles in the issue can be accessed at the journal’s website, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15737861 . They will first appear under the “Early View” tab, and later in volume 35, supplement I.     

Alcohol in Employment Settings:

No abstract available for this article.