Physically disabled pupils in mainstream schools

SUMMARY. In this article the author suggests that the most appropriate way to integrate physically disabled pupils into mainstream schools is on an individual basis as opposed to designating particular schools to take ail disabled pupils, or by building special units attached to mainstream schools. Several reasons are presented and discussed to support this point of view. It is suggested that there is a clear need in this field of ‘special education’ for adequate resourcing and advice to be made available to schools and teachers working with the disabled. This resourcing must be made available at local authority level. Some of the many problems encountered in mainstreaming on an individual basis are then highlighted. The author concludes that there are risks to be taken and that these must be accepted within the educational system     

Moving Fragments

This article examines three films as they wrestle with the problem of madness through the construction of narrative: Grizzly Man (Director, Werner Herzog, 2005), Capturing the Friedmans (Director, Andrew Jarecki, 2003), and Tarnation (Director, Jonathan Caouette, 2003). There is progression in the narrative capacities depicted and enacted in each film: from the representation of a boundary with the unsymbolizable, through the failed figuration of sexuality, to the realization of a self-reflexive and thus transformational narrative. Working at the intersection of the personal and the social, the article postulates that films can serve as social containers for the elaboration of narratives that allow subjective cultural intelligibility. We are transformed through viewership. Specifically, the relatively new use of videography as a means of recording and shaping life experience creates novel forms of personal narrative that function as social containers. Narratives of personal madness are seen to constitute the true residence of sanity.     

Moving and Children's Social Connections: Neighborhood Context and the Consequences of Moving for Low-Income Families

Using data from an experimental housing relocation program, this research compares social connections of children in families that move with those of similar children who do not move. Qualitative interview data are used to examine what factors influence the formation of social connections after moving. Results show the impact of moving on children's social connections is influenced by neighborhood context, financial resources, and children's age at the time of the move. Studies of moving during childhood need to pay closer attention to the factors that influence where, when, and why families move.     

Moving Towards Work

SUMMARY

The present study sought to investigate the effects of employment on low-income single black mothers and their preschool children. The sample included 90 mothers from New York City communities who were welfare recipients in 1996, and followed two years later. At follow-up, 53 of the 90 mothers were employed. The findings indicated that lower levels of depressive affect or financial strain were not predictive of entry into the work force. However, once employed, mothers reported less depressive symptoms than those not working. Attaining more education predicted better outcomes for mothers and their children, and provided more of an opportunity to be successful in the job market. For example, having more education was associated with gaining employment, exiting welfare, having stable employment, earning higher wages, and better reading abilities in children. Maternal employment was beneficial to children, as mothers who entered the work force had children who performed better in math achievement at follow-up, after controlling for maternal socioeconomic characteristics and school readiness at baseline. Implications of the findings will be discussed.     

Moving Toward Collaboration

Summary

Traditionally, organizations serving children and families have focused service delivery by available funding stream criteria. Federal funding streams supported fragmented services by tightly channeling monies to specific programs for specific needs. The intensity of providing and improving the delivery of services has overshadowed building connectedness across organizations and systems. Service has been the major goal and intense effort has gone into maximizing opportunities and measuring effects through service frequency. Over the past several years, new funding incentives have provided the opportunity for new collaboratives. This article describes an innovative collaboration between the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW) and Eastern Washington University (EWU) and the unique directions and support that a university/agency partnership can provide for both organizations. Key features of this collaboration include shifts in funding and staffing strategies that contributed to more flexible services and increased levels of collaboration between IDHW, EWU and other community and state organizations and institutions. This article describes how funding can be viewed as a tool to increase the level of collaboration between systems, thus potentially leading to a breakdown of the traditional service delivery system. Finally, this article describes how an agency/higher education partnership played a key role in documenting the success of a school based program in meeting the emergency assistance needs of children and families, and how program evaluation, like funding requirements, can provide a supportive role in building collaborative relationships.     

Post-communist lavender menace: lesbians in mainstream East European film

The article examines four films-Károly Makk's Egymásra nézve (Another Way, Hungary, 1982), Maja Weiss's Varuh meje (Guardian of the Frontier, Slovenia 2002), Dalibor Matani?'s Fine mrtve djevojke (Fine Dead Girls, Croatia, 2002), and Dragan Marinkovi?'s Di?i duboko (Take a Deep Breath, Serbia, 2004)-as post-communist or dissident national allegories. In all of these films by straight directors the lesbians represent a metaphorical threat to the hetero/sexist national order, but they are unfortunately little more than simulacra. They can be emotionally real (and fun for the straight male audience to ogle), but that ultimately works against them, because instead of representing real lesbian communities, they still have to affirm the stereotype of tragic lesbian destiny straight audiences find comforting.     

工程移民搬迁动力分析框架

所有移民类型都涉及到移民为什么迁移 (搬迁 )的问题。对于自发移民来说 ,是否迁移是由迁移成本与收益的相对大小决定的 ;若偏重于社会、心理因素 ,则又可用迁入地与迁出地的推力、拉力或吸引力、排斥力等概念来表示基本相同的含义。对工程移民搬迁动力的分析引人注目 ,它牵涉到的首要问题是 ,工程移民迁移与否的决定权不在移民个人 ,这是否意味着他们的搬迁必需依赖强迫力量 ?与此相关联的一系列问题包括工程移民中成本—收益理论所表明的规律在多大程度上还起作用 ?要让移民在非强迫的情况下自愿搬迁 ,是否必需加大资金投入以使成本高于收…     

The objectification of women in mainstream pornographic videos in Australia

Using twelve measures of objectification, I measured the degree to which women are objectified in mainstream pornographic videos in Australia. Seven of the measures allowed for direct comparison of female and male objectification. Of these, one shows women being more objectified than men (presence of orgasms, where women have fewer orgasms). Three show men being more objectified than women (in time spent looking at camera, where men return the gaze significantly less; in time spent talking to the camera, where they are also less engaged; and in initiating sex, where men are more sexual objects than active sexual subjects in seeking their sexual pleasure in the sample). Three measures showed no difference in objectification between men and women (naming, central characters, and time spent talking to other characters).     

From migrant enclaves to mainstream: Reconceptualizing informal economic behavior

The informal economy has developed in sociological theory to refer to clusters of illegal or quasi-illegal activities, usually unreported, by which people in some immigrant or ethnic communities earn income outside regular businesses and jobs. This article first extrapolates a set of characteristics beyond the legal status of such activities that define the informal economy. These provide a richer framework for future research and the basis for identifying informal economic activity in other sectors of the legitimate mainstream economy. In fact, informalization seems to have gone from marginal activities to a mainstream movement to make large sectors more fluid, network-based, and less regulated—the informalized economy. Its characteristics are identified. They overlap with the first set but differ principally in terms of extending Merton's proposition that different social structures exert different pressures to engage in non-conforming behavior. The article concludes with policy implications for fostering greater entrepreneurship in marginal migrant communities, and it suggests new ways for economic sociologists to study network transactions in modern corporations of informal economic activity through generative sociology.     

Inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream child development research

This study investigated whether children with disabilities are excluded from mainstream child development research. Fifteen per cent of 533 articles from Child Development and Developmental Psychology (1996–2010) were randomly selected. The exclusion rate was 89.9% when no mention of participants with disabilities was interpreted as exclusion and 66.7% when only studies mentioning disabilities were surveyed; 74% of studies did not provide justification for exclusion. Most studies could have included children with disabilities. Inclusion could be increased by adopting universal design principles and accommodations so that more children with disabilities can gain equal access to research opportunities and the benefits that accrue.     

Comparison of specialist and mainstream programs for older carers of adults with intellectual disability: Considerations for service development

Older carers of adults with intellectual disabilities experience unique challenges. Outreach initiatives identify a high number who are unknown to support services and a case is made to proactively engage them to assist in future planning for their adult children. An earlier study by the authors suggested that, in Victoria, specialist case management programs for older carers occupied a unique place within the service system. The present paper discusses a study that further explored the functions of specialist programs for this group through a comparsion with a mainstream disability case-management program. Few differences were found, although mainstream programs did not undertake outreach and community education functions. Models that build on the capacity of mainstream case management or carer support programs to work with older carers and target outreach more effectively are discussed.     

Adolescents' contact with sexuality in mainstream media: a selection-based perspective

Most work on adolescents' contact with sexuality in mainstream media has been framed in terms of media effects upon the sexual self-concepts, attitudes, and behaviors of youth, even when such causality cannot be inferred. Rarely examined are the sexual characteristics of adolescents that may predict contact with sexual media. Using Steele's (1999) Media Practice Model as a foundation, we reported on these associations for 2,184 Dutch adolescents. This study emphasized sex differences in the characteristics that predict such contact, and the role of youths' critical evaluations of information about sex in the media. Correlation and regression analyses revealed several sex differences in the characteristics related to sexual media contact, with individual characteristics accounting for more variance in females and critical evaluations accounting for more variance in males. This report underscores the need for more comprehensive, longitudinal studies of adolescents' media consumption and its connections to sexual development in youth.     

Inter-ideological mingling: White extremist ideology entering the mainstream on Twitter

ABSTRACT

This case study explores the convergence of white extremist political ideology with mainstream political ideology on the micro-blogging platform Twitter – a phenomenon termed “inter-ideological mingling”. Exploring the spread of white extremism in the digital environment can provide insight into the growth of hate groups in the physical environment. A sample of 4800 tweets was examined through hierarchical cluster analysis and textual analysis. Several pieces of evidence were found supporting inter-ideological mingling. Cluster analysis shows that extremist terms are not isolated from terms found in mainstream political discourse. Textual analysis of individual tweets provides evidence for five strategies of inter-ideological mingling: joining, blending, piggybacking, backstaging, and narrating.     

走向积极的社会管理

当前对社会管理问题的着力强调,源于社会问题、社会矛盾以及社会冲突的不断增加和由此所形成的对社会生活的冲击。与传统社会相比,我们身处其中的是一个更为复杂、更具风险、充满了不确定性的世界。在面临诸多压力和挑战的情况下,很容易形成对社会管理的误解,即将社会管理片面地理解为一种消极的、防范性的手段,误解为加强权力对社会的全面控制。社会管理的真正目的是改善人类的生存状况;而积极的社会管理则以主动的建设和变革为手段,以改善社会的状况、建设一个充满幸福感的、更好的社会为目标。公平正义是积极社会管理的实现途径。健全社会机制是积极社会管理的关键。