Frank Findings: Frank Parsons and the Parson Family

The historical portrait of Frank Parsons in terms of his early years and family life has endured considerable speculation based on limited information. At the 100th anniversary of his death, new information has emerged to refute some of the widely held claims about Parsons and his family life. It is time to move beyond the confines of secondary sources to primary sources of information about Parsons. The legacy of Parsons deserves a more thorough and accurate examination.     

Diffusion of innovations through social networks: Determinants and implications

Social scientists have long been interested in the diffusion of innovations—the process by which new ideas, behavior, and practices spread between persons, organizations, and even countries. While innovations can enter a community through various channels, ongoing spread of innovations through a community occurs through the medium of social networks—collections of interpersonal or digital relationships connecting actors to each other. Social networks are important for diffusion because relationships foster communication, trust, and flow of information. Diffusion outcomes are also shaped by the structural properties of social networks such as density, centrality, and strength of ties, as well as properties of the innovation and the actors involved in the process. The purpose of the article is twofold: (1) to take stock of the field and review ongoing debates on the role of social networks in the diffusion of innovations and (2) to summarize the sociological implications of the diffusion of innovations through social networks.     

Frank Capra and Leni Riefenstahl: Politics,Propaganda and the Personal

Abstract

The circumstances that led Frank Capra to view Leni Riefenstahl's notorious documentary of the 1934 Nuremberg rallies, Triumph of the Will, is well-known. What is less known is the extent to which the themes inherent in Capra's filmmaking through the 1930s, and Riefenstahl's own interest in ideas of national identity, social commentary and romanticism in her fictional and documentary films, mapped out a set of cinematic coincidences between the two little discussed in the body of literature devoted to these directors. This article lays out a number of those coincidences and, in the process, compares the theoretical strain of political romanticism that winds its way through Capra and Riefenstahl's work. The iconic and symbolic imagery in their films suggests interesting and important comparative aspects to their canon, but also that a fascination in political romanticism led them to differing conclusions about the impact and threat of media and propaganda forces lined up in alliance with totalitarian powers during the 1930s and '40s.     

Caregiving transitions: Developmental and gendered perspectives

Providing care for family members is a life event that both reflects and influences family dynamics. Caregiving careers, or the length of time a person provides care, are characterized by a series of transitions to which they must continuously adapt. Women are more likely than men to assume the caregiver role and this role encompasses gender inequalities associated with work and caregiving expectations. This article presents qualitative data from interviews conducted with caregivers who participated in a community-based supportive services program. The experiences of these women provide insight into how caregivers transition into their role, strategies for supporting new and experienced caregivers, and their concerns for their future. Developmental and gendered perspectives of caregiving were used as a context to analyze their experiences.     

M.S.W.'s speak: Experiences in agency and private supervision

This paper derives from a study of the views of twenty-one M.S.W.'s about experiences in agency and private supervision. The contributions, from the perspective of the subjects, of both these sources to professional development are highlighted. Some of the less positively perceived elements of these two forms of supervision are also illuminated.     

Generation Gap: Student Social Worker and the A.A.S.W.

INTRODUCTION

WOMEN'S MOVEMENTS AND SOCIAL WORK IN ENGLAND AND THE U.S.A. With the new wave of feminism of the mid-sixties in England and North America and a little later in Australia, where it is generally expressed through the Women's Liberation Movement or the Women's Electoral Lobby, many professional women's groups have begun to criticize what they believe is unfair discrimination against women within their professions.     

Speaking From the Pained Place: Engaging With Frank Dattilio

It was with interest that I accepted the invitation to provide a brief response to Frank Dattilio's article on cognitive restructuring in couples therapy. My reading of the article initially was as a practitioner in couples work for the last 28 years, and who is always curious about what can be helpful with couples. However, I also bring to my reading an understanding of couples work using the framework of the Emotionally Focused Therapy perspective.     

Decolonial sociology: W.E.B. Du Bois's foundational theoretical and methodological contributions

Decolonial theory offers sociologists, especially critical race scholars, powerful theoretical and methodological tools to understand historical and contemporary injustice and resistance. As a revolutionary epistemology, decolonial theory and methods feature critical insights into knowledges from subaltern voices concerned with how the implementation of modern technologies shape colonial structures, inequalities, the daily lives of the colonized, and resistance strategies. However, decolonial studies have long been the purview of the humanities and remain marginal to the social sciences due, partially, to a dearth of foundational theorizing. Challenging scientific colonialism, historicism, and Eurocentric conceptions of civilization while simultaneously linking these phenomena to racialized exploitation of labor within a modern global capitalist system and resistance to it, W. E. B. Du Bois's sociological theories, methods, and advocacy offer insightful ways to begin decolonizing the discipline, theoretically and in practice, in scholarship and in the world. This article outlines Du Bois's theoretical and empirical contributions by putting him in dialogue with a century of decolonial scholarship before offering suggestions for how to mobilize Du Bois's decolonial theory and methods for a pluriversal decolonial sociology.     

Some Questions for Frank H. Leone on Provider-Based Occupational Health Programs

No abstract available for this article.