PUBLIC PEDAGOGY AS CULTURAL POLITICS: STUART HALL AND THE CRISIS OF CULTURE

This article argues that Stuart Hall's work provides an important theoretical framework for developing an expanded notion of public pedagogy, for making the pedagogical central to any understanding of political agency, and for addressing the primacy of public pedagogy and cultural politics in any viable theory of social change. Hall's work becomes particularly important not only in making education crucial to the practice of cultural studies, but also in providing a theoretical and political corrective to recent attacks on cultural politics, which cut across ideological lines and include theorists as politically diverse as Harold Bloom, Richard Rorty and Todd Gitlin.     

READING HALL READING MARX

This essay introduces and highlights the significance of Stuart Hall' essay, ‘Marx' Notes on Method: A “Reading” of the “1857 Introduction’’ which follows. Hall' essay is a key text in understanding the theoretical work of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in the mid-1970s, specifically the Centre' engagement with Althusser. Hall' text sets the theoretical groundwork for the concept of articulation and raises important questions of method within cultural studies. It also represents an exemplary reading of Marx.     

G. Stanley Hall: Neither Psychology Alone Nor Basic Research is Sufficient

In his monumental work, Adolescence, G. Stanley Hall showed the value of interdisciplinary scholarship and respect for research, which had a policy orientation. Over the course of the 20th century these two characteristics faded in adolescent studies as psychology took dominance and basic research was given priority over policy considerations. An argument is made that there is value in revisiting Hall's approach as studies of adolescence can be enriched through interdisciplinary efforts and research which brings policy to the forefront.     

Parents' Affect,Adolescent Cognitive Representations,and Adolescent Social Development

Prior research regarding the role of parent‐child relationships in children's social development generally has been limited to concurrent or short‐term longitudinal data and has focused primarily on mothers' influence in the early or middle childhood years. Using a multimethod, multiinformant design, the present study extends previous findings by examining whether maternal and paternal affect predicted adolescent social behavior and peer acceptance 2 years later. Both maternal and paternal affect had significant direct and indirect effects (via adolescent cognitive representations of parents) on adolescent negative social behavior as reported by siblings, which in turn predicted decreased peer acceptance as rated by teachers. Findings suggest that both mothers and fathers shape adolescent social development and attest to the importance of exploring multiple pathways that may account for continuity in parent‐child and peer relationships.     

Agile Materialisms: Antonio Gramsci,Stuart Hall,Racialization, and Modernity

This article investigates why Gramsci's theories and concepts have a discrete relevance to the study of race and ethnicity in contemporary contexts. Two theoretical points emerge from the investigation. First, through Gramsci's work, Hall's approach to the structural/cultural theory problem provides an important mediation for theoretical approaches to race. Hall is then able to demonstrate that the racialization of labor and the coercion of workers in colonial and neocolonial contexts, with regard to the “global south” was the rule and not the exception. Second, through an historical and discursive approach, I demonstrate how Gramsci's analysis of politics and political strategies took race into account. I contend that Gramsci's perspective on race facilitated Hall's ability to deploy Gramsci's theoretical framework and concepts.     

Coming Closer in Adolescence: Convergence in Mother,Father, and Adolescent Reports of Parenting

Parent–child relationships change during adolescence. Furthermore, parents and adolescents perceive parenting differently. We examined the changes in perceptions of parental practices in fathers, mothers, and adolescents during adolescence. Furthermore, we investigated if fathers', mothers', and adolescents' perceptions converge during adolescence. Following 497 families across six waves (ages 13–18), we investigated the development of parental support and behavioral control using mother and father self‐reports, and adolescent reports for mothers and fathers. We found curvilinear decrease for support and control. Parent–adolescent convergence emerged over the 6 years: those with higher intercepts had a steeper decrease, whereas correlations among parent and adolescent reports increased. This multi‐informant study sheds light on the development of parent–adolescent convergence on perceptions of parenting.     

Rethinking Girls “At-Risk”

Abstract

This conceptual article critically analyzes influential theoretical frameworks concerning adolescent female development, including psychosocial identity stage theory, person-in-environment theory, and feminist psychology. Based on the strengths and limitations of these approaches, the author introduces social workers to an emerging framework that addresses the gender, race, and class intersections that contextualize adolescent girls' developmental experiences. This perspective also discusses young women's capacity to resist norms and stereotypes in their search for an authentic identity. This innovative theory complements a strengths-based approach to social work and can be used to guide research andpractice with this population.     

Predictors of father‐son communication about sexuality

Examining the factors that influence adolescents’ sexual behaviors is crucial for understanding why they often engage in risky sexual behaviors. Using social cognitive theory, we examined predictors of father‐son communication about sexuality. Fathers (N = 155) of adolescent sons completed a survey measuring 12 variables, including self‐efficacy and outcome expectations. We found that (a) son's pubertal development, father's sex‐based values, father's education, father's communication with his father, outcome expectations, and general communication accounted for 36% of the variance in information sharing communication and (b) son's pubertal development, outcome expectations, general communication, and father‐son contact accounted for 20% of the variance in values sharing communication. Study findings can aid professionals in designing guidelines and programs to promote father‐son general communication and sex‐based communication.     

Understanding Why Religious Involvement's Relationship With Education Varies by Social Class

Religiosity's impact on adolescent educational outcomes has been widely documented in the sociology of religion literature. Building upon King's conceptual framework of ideological, social, and transcendent resources that are made available to youth through religious participation, we use qualitative and quantitative data from the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) to explore how the associations between religious involvement and educational outcomes may vary among lower and higher socioeconomic status youth. Our findings indicate significant positive effects of transcendent and ideological resources on educational outcomes, especially among youth from disadvantaged backgrounds, but limited influence of social resources through youth's religious participation.     

Assessing Social Work's Contribution to Controlled Studies of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

ABSTRACT

Findings from a review of social work's contribution to the adolescent substance abuse treatment outcome literature between 1990 and 2001 are presented. Social work involvement in adolescent substance abuse treatment was evaluated through a computerized bibliographic search of medical and social science databases and by a manual search of 13 core social work journals. Results indicate that social work has contributed little to knowledge development in adolescent chemical dependency treatment. Investigators affiliated with a department or school of social work accounted for three of 15 controlled treatment outcome studies. Only one report was published in a core social work journal. Efforts to develop clinical guidelines in this important practice domain will founder until a sufficiently directive body of practice-relevant research accumulates to guide evidence-based substance abuse treatment for adolescents.     

Linguistic practice and identity work: Variation in Taiwan Mandarin at a Taipei County high school

This article examines variation in the use of two Taiwan Mandarin features, de‐retroflection of sibilant fricatives [?] → [s], and labial glide deletion [w?] → [?], in the speech of Taipei County high school students. The features become resources for the negotiation of identity positions within the highly structured school institution. I discuss the correlations between the use of Taiwan Mandarin and two social factors: membership in the small culture (Holliday 1999 ) of a particular bānjí or class, and individual aspirations. Holliday's concept of small cultures is proposed as a variant of the Community of Practice. I refer to Bucholtz and Hall's ( 2004 ) tactics of intersubjectivity framework as a possible tool for explaining variation at the school. I argue that the two Taiwan Mandarin features are invoked to perform different social goals, which is possible because they are imbued with related but significantly different sociocultural meanings (Brubaker 2012 ; Baran 2007 ).     

Rejection Sensitivity in Late Adolescence: Social and Emotional Sequelae

This study used longitudinal, multireporter data, in a community sample, to examine the role of rejection sensitivity in late adolescents' social and emotional development. Rejection sensitivity was linked to a relative increase in adolescent depressive and anxiety symptoms over a 3‐year period, even after accounting for teens' baseline level of social competence. Additionally, reciprocal relationships emerged between rejection sensitivity and internalizing symptoms. Rejection sensitivity was also linked to relative decreases in peer‐reports of teens' social competence over a 3‐year period. Consistent with research on gendered socialization, males reported higher levels of rejection sensitivity than females at ages 16 and 17. Results are interpreted as highlighting the importance of rejection sensitivity in understanding late adolescent social and emotional development.     

ADOLESCENTS AS A SOURCE OF SOCIAL CONTROL: THE UTILITY OF ADOLESCENT SOCIAL CAPITAL FOR REDUCING VIOLENT DELINQUENCY

Parental social capital has emerged as an important social control component of adolescent delinquency. However, for severe forms of delinquency, such as violence, adolescent social capital is as likely a source of social control as adult social capital. This study uses the first two waves of the Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to show that parental social capital has little effect on violence once parental and family characteristics are controlled. However, both neighborhood and school adolescent social capital reduce adolescents' violent behavior in spite of strong controls of peer fighting, prior violent offending, and neighborhood-level variables.     

African American Women and Power Politics in New York City, 1944–1972

ABSTRACT

Between 1944 and 1972, African American women from New York City ran for all levels of elected office, from City Council to the United States Presidency. In this article, I argue that World War II created unprecedented opportunities for women to enter politics. A study of postwar New York offers an excellent opportunity to examine how black women defied conventions of gender and race, challenging the pervasive image of the urban political operative, to advance in the city's tough electoral arena. They succeeded in overcoming the Democratic Party machine, Tammany Hall's, resistance to running black women. Once inside the system, despite significant obstacles, these women pushed to change the Democratic Party in important ways for women and for African Americans.     

A Literature Review of the Experiences of African American and Caucasian TANF Women Transitioning from Welfare to Work

This study examined African American women's perceptions of their adolescent children's well-being since gaining employment. This study departed from other studies that focused on the entire Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) population and/or compared subgroups within the population. In this study, the sample population is composed of all African American mothers and all of the mothers receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families benefits and have gained employment. The study explored the relationship between adult supervision of adolescent children that resided in distressed communities and adolescent overall well-being as measured by academic well-being, emotional well-being, and social well-being.     

Left Behind by Parents in China: Internal Migration and Adolescents’ Well-Being

This study investigates how growing up as a left-behind child due to parents’ labor migration in China is associated with adolescents’ cognitive and socioemotional development, based on data from the China Family Panel Studies. We find that adolescents do worst when both parents are absent in all developmental indicators we examined: short-term and long-term word recall tests, numeracy test, self-concept, and self-expectation of educational attainment. However, the differences between left-behind children and those in rural two-parent families are not statistically significant. Left-behind adolescents do have significantly lower well-being than those in urban two-parent families. These differences can largely be accounted for by father's education, family spending on the adolescent's education, quality of parenting, and the social support available to an adolescent. The gap in Chinese adolescents' development is, thus, not so much related directly to how many parents one grows up with as it is to whether one grows up in a rural or urban environment.     

A Longitudinal Examination of Support,Self‐Esteem,and Mexican‐Origin Adolescent Mothers' Parenting Efficacy

Guided by a risk and resilience framework, this study used a prospective longitudinal, multiple‐reporter design to examine how social support from a mother figure during pregnancy interacted with Mexican‐origin adolescent mothers' self‐esteem to inform their parenting efficacy when their children were 10 months old. Using reports of perceived social support by adolescent mothers (M_age = 16.24, SD = 0.99) and their mother figures (M_age = 40.84, SD = 7.04) in 205 dyads, and controlling for demographic factors (i.e., adolescent age, adolescent nativity, family income, mothers' educational attainment, adolescent – mother coresidence) and adolescents' social support from a significant other, the findings indicated that social support during pregnancy was positively associated with adolescent mothers' future parenting efficacy when adolescent mothers had relatively lower self‐esteem. The findings were consistent for adolescents' and mothers' reports and emphasize the value of social support from a mother figure among adolescent mothers with lower self‐esteem. Implications for interventions are presented.     

Hispanic adolescent fathers: At risk and underresearched

The literature on adolescent fathers largely ignores hispanic Americans. Studies of adolescent fathers, most often involving black males, suggest directions for research among hispanic males. In this paper, we review the small literature on adolescent fathers relative to several nonexclusive dimensions. These dimensions are adolescent fathers' needs and problems; relationships to the adolescent mothers; social supports and help seeking behavior; and attitudes toward fatherhood and contraception, perception of locus of control, and academic achievement. Using the existing empirical literature and integrating knowledge of the hispanic culture and community, a future research agenda on hispanic adolescent fathers is outlined.     

Editor's introduction

Documentary photography has always been confronted by criticisms and self-doubts about its method and purpose. Can pictures ostensibly intruding into the lives of the poor and the destitute, whether taken by academics, reformers or professional photographers, ever be legitimate? This article suggests that these concerns actually determine the way mainstream American social photography looks. Such is the case, at least, in a cliché which has run through the US documentary tradition since the 1930s, and which could be labelled ‘doorstep portraits’. Examples drawn from the famous Farm Security Administration archive and from Oraien Catledge's work in Atlanta's Cabbagetown in the 1980s show individuals and families sitting for a picture on the threshold of their house. This image is a meaningful convention because it seems to encode the nature of the relationship between photographer, subject and audience. This ritual ‘presentation of the self’ takes place as the private lives of the sitters are being transformed into public visual discourse through the photographic image. The first part of this paper attempts to define doorstep portraits as a kind of ‘metapicture’ – to use W.T.J. Mitchell's term. The issue of ‘access’ in documentary practice is then briefly described as the methodological problem which this metapicture engages. Erving Goffman's definition of ‘performance’ and Edward T. Hall's proxemics provide a theoretical framework for understanding how this engagement works. Finally, the normative dimension of documentary's visual conventions in the context of liberal reform discourse is re-examined in the light of this model.