Alternative prenatal care interventions to alleviate Black–White maternal/infant health disparities

This paper attempts to forward the maternal health literature that critiques standard prenatal care in the United States by drawing on intersectionality, medicalization, and fundamental causation theories. We argue that these theories deepen our understanding of the maternal health experiences of Black women and can help explain why alternative prenatal care interventions have value for Black pregnant women. Alternative models of prenatal care, which include the use of midwives, doulas, and group prenatal care, are associated with equal or better health outcomes for infants and mothers compared to the standard prenatal model in the United States. We begin by drawing on these sociological perspectives to identify gaps in the maternal health literature that is critical of standard biomedical maternal health approaches. We then go on to describe select alternative methods of prenatal care and then provide a summary of the epidemiological literature as it relates to sociodemographic trends in usage and the relative effectiveness of alternative models compared to standard care. We conclude by arguing that a joint, critical application of these three theories can help scholars explain the utility of alternative interventions for African American maternal/infant health and can inform policies that aim to alleviate Black–White maternal/infant health disparities.     

Assessing the Effects of the Physical,Psychological, and Social Dimensions of Health on the Use of Health Services*

In this paper we examine two major assumptions inherent in the literature relating health status to the use of health services: (1) that each of the three dimensions of health (i.e., the physical, the psychological, and the social) has an equal impact on the use of health services; and (2) that the effects of these three dimensions of health are manifest in an additive rather than in an interactive fashion. To test these assumptions, multiple regression analyses are performed using a modified version of the generic model of access to medical care in order to predict eight different types of health services utilization. The results compel us to accept the additivity assumption, while rejecting the equality assumption. Moreover, contrary to Mechanic's assertion, psychological health was found to have the least impact of any of the three dimensions of health on the use of health services. We then discuss two possible explanations (i.e., differences in the populations studied and the measurement of the independent variables) that might account for the disparity between Mechanic's and our own findings. Although further study is needed before any firm conclusions may be drawn, the evidence suggests that Mechanic's findings may be specific to the HMO populations that he sampled.     

Is Nature‐Oriented Tourism a Pro‐Environmental Practice?: Examining Tourism–Environmentalism Alignments Through Discourse Networks and Intersectoral Relationships

A key tenet of ecotourism is that interacting with nature through tourism cultivates environmental awareness and responsibility. We examine this assumption by analyzing discourse networks and organizational networks that connect tourism and environmentalism in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Using a combination of interviews, field observation, and web‐based data, we ask: Is there an alignment of tourism and environmental discourse regarding human interaction with and use of coastal environments? Are there meaningful organizational ties between tourism and environmental organizations? We conclude that there is little indication that nature‐oriented tourism is working to produce substantial changes to our broader political ecology.     

Rethinking twins and environments: possible social sources for assumed genetic influences in twin research

A central sociological problem is the extent to which genetics and the environment influence human behavior. Studies of twins are a core method in attempts to disentangle and to determine the comparative strength of genetic and environmental influences on psychosocial outcomes. A critical assumption of twin studies is that both monozygotic "identical" twins and dizygotic "fraternal" twins share common social environments. Therefore, any greater similarity of monozygotic than dizygotic twins is attributed to genetic influences. This paper tests the equal environment assumption by examining the extent to which greater concordance of adolescent monozygotic compared to dizygotic twins results from social, as well as genetic, influences. Bivariate comparisons indicate that monozygotic twins show greater similarity than dizygotic twins in socially-based characteristics including physical attractiveness, time spent in each other's company, the overlap in friendship networks, and friends' use of alcohol. Multivariate analyses indicate that measures of the social environment sometimes reduce or eliminate apparent genetic effects. In comparison with genetic indicators, social variables are usually stronger predictors of depression and alcohol use and abuse. These findings suggest that past twin studies could overstate the strength of genetic influences because some similarities in behavior among monozygotic compared to dizygotic twins stem from social influences.     

Tilting at Twindmills: rethinking sociological responses to behavioral genetics

While we commend Horwitz et al. (2003) for speaking to core issues in behavioral genetics, we disagree with many particulars of their article. We are skeptical of their claims regarding the particular contribution offered by both their methods and data. We believe also that the findings they present as challenging the equal environments assumption are, upon closer examination, not persuasive. Most fundamentally, we worry that the way in which Horwitz et al. conceptualize the relationship between genes and environments is not the best means of doing so for sociologists interested in engaging behavioral genetics.     

Religion, Rationality, and Experience: A Response to the New Rational Choice Theory of Religion

This paper is a critical response to the newest version of the rational choice theory of religion (RCTR). In comparison with previous critiques, this paper takes aim at RCTR's foundational assumption of psychological egoism and argues that the thesis of psychological egoism is untenable. Without that thesis, the normative aspects of religious commitment cannot be reduced validly to instrumental reason. On neither conceptual nor empirical grounds therefore can religion or religious commitment be defined comprehensively in terms of exchange theory. With the failure of psychological egoism as a point of departure, the paper articulates an alternative theory of religion, one based on the epistemic rationality grounded in religious experience and religious emotion .     

How Dresses Can Make You Mentally Ill: Examining Gender Identity Disorder in Children

This paper examines the diagnostic category of Gender Identity Disorder in Children (GIDC) and its evolution. It also critiques the continued use of GIDC on conceptual, psychometric, and ethical grounds. Gender atypicality is a social construction that varies over time according to culture and social class and therefore should not be pathologized.     

Service Users,Social Work Education and Knowledge for Social Work Practice

This paper explores the implications of service user contributions to social work education in the light of historical critiques of disability research. The paper reflects on the authors' dual service user and academic perspectives as well as their dual disability studies and social work disciplinary affiliations. Referring back to early critiques of disability research, it argues that isolated user involvement in social work education can be problematic, particularly where that involvement is under the control of the academy. Drawing on feminist critiques of traditional social science, the authors present arguments for the collective involvement of service users in research and underpinning knowledge for social work as well as in social work education.     

Locating non‐Western enlightenment texts for a global curriculum

The context of this paper is a university‐based teacher education course in Melbourne, Australia. The assumption underpinning the course is that it is crucial for trainee teachers to examine the lenses they typically use in terms of common‐sense understandings of children and adolescents. We point to the 18th century Western enlightenment period as the source of this thinking. I argue that it is important to be aware of other enlightenments that have shaped the traditions of students in our multicultural mix. In this paper, I explore the writings of the Mahabharata and other early Indian texts to see how they have also influenced ways of thinking about childhood and adolescence. Data for this paper have been drawn from course materials, student responses, translations of early Indian texts and popular stories depicting childhood and adolescence.     

Evaluating and rethinking the case study

This paper will first explore briefly how the case study fell out of favour as a legitimate research tool, and how case study researchers responded to the critique that case study research lacked internal and external validity. Some case study advocates attempted to meet this critique by using the case to compare different theoretical predictions, dividing the case into subcases, or treating the case as an experiment. A more effective response distinguishes between ‘extensive’ and ‘intensive’ research designs, and critiques the extensive model. The paper then provides a clarification of purpose and a revived emphasis on theory, history, and intervention to develop the case study method. This paper will begin to construct a comprehensive case study methodology independent of the old critiques, and will show the crucial place which case studies must occupy in our craft.     

Presage of a paradigm shift? Beyond the social model of disability toward resistance theories of disability

Over the last decade, a growing number of scholars in Disability Studies have begun to critique the social model of disability. This paper documents the movement in these critiques, analyzing several ways paradigms and theories have been used in relation to the social model and the ways in which resistance plays a part in these paradigms. In the second part of the paper, we begin to explore the implications of resistance theory for disability theory, noting that resistance appears to exist throughout all paradigms at play in disability studies while it is rarely explicitly addressed. We conclude by describing the potential use of resistance theory for both theory and praxis.     

Pragmatism and the Scientific Validation of Professional Practices in American Special Education

A number of American special educators have recently stated that new professional practices should undergo a process of 'scientific validation' whereby researchers decide the effectiveness or value of the practice. This essay critiques this position by way of the philosophical framework of pragmatism, an American philosophy spanning from the works of Peirce, James and Dewey to the current writings of neo-pragmatists Richard Rorty and Cornel West. Rorty's critique of the representational use of language is explained. Emphasis is placed on the importance of an equal, democratic dialogue in decision-making processes involving professionals, served individuals and families. The essay concludes with a brief illustration of a pragmatist's approach to inclusive education.     

Historical interpretations of alcohol use and misuse. implications for nursing curricula

Since the 1950's, nursing schools have been encouraged to include some formal content on alcoholism in their curricula. Yet there remains on immerse disparity between the prevalence of drug and alcohol problems in our society and the required number of hour on these topics in our nursing curricula. The International Nurses Society on Addictions calls on the nursing profession to promote healthy lifestyles for "at-risk" individuals. In a historical context, this article critiques the ambivalence related to alcohol use and misuse in the United States. Within that background, pedagogy to help nursing faculty and students meet current societal and professional demands and standards regarding intervention for alcohol-related problems will be explored. The constructivist educational and caring-educative models are highlighted.     

Analyzing ethnoracial mobilization

This article examines scholarship about ethnoracial mobilization written by sociologists within the subfields of social movements and race and racism. We situate our synthesis within critiques put forward by other scholars about the treatment of ethnoracial movements within the social movement subfield. Using these critiques as launching points, we find two broad patterns in the literature: (a) a focus on ethnoracial social movements that decenters race, at times treating it as an independent variable and (b) a focus on mobilizations for racial equity that treats race as a dynamic and constructed process. Within the latter focus, we note research that investigates ethnoracial mobilization at the macro‐, meso‐, and micro‐levels. We call for more research on movements that specifically consider the mobilization and construction of ethnoracial identities. In doing so, we provide a conceptual map of the field and make suggestions for how social movement scholars employing distinct theoretical foci can engage in ethnoracial analysis. Finally, we hypothesize why there might be a dearth of research within the social movement subfield that engages in critical analysis of ethnoracial dynamics of social movements.     

An argument for context‐driven intersectionality

The concept of intersectionality has fundamentally changed feminist theorizing and the study of women and gender. However, intersectional research, theorizing, and practice also have been subject to important critiques. This article provides a brief genealogy of intersectionality and summarizes major critiques. We recognize value in these critiques as well as the ongoing power of an intersectional lens. We therefore advocate what we call “context‐driven intersectionality,” arguing that attention to the historical, political, economic, and social factors that shape power relationships and social structures is critical to conducting robust intersectional analyses that avoid reification of social categories and inequalities.     

Removing Macho Management: Lessons from the Field of Education

This article examines discourses of management and leadership in the light of gender inequalities in social relations and in educational administration in particular. It is argued that women's viewpoints and critiques of masculinist managerial perspectives are important in debates about alternative models of leadership. Interview data from a recent study of a group of six women working in teaching/managing positions in some primary and secondary schools in New Zealand is used to analyse a leadership style and philosophy which cuts across traditional gendered splits between private and public spheres, emotionality and rationality, teaching and administration. In this holistic approach, emphasis is placed on integrating such dichotomies through affiliation with others and power sharing. The paper concludes that such a management style must be supported and valued for the contribution it can make to improving organizational cultures and enhancing school learning and teaching environments. An original version of this paper was presented at the NZARE 13th National Conference at Knox College, Dunedin, New Zealand on 30 November 1991.     

Figured Worlds in the Field of Power

This article seeks to deepen our understanding of how structural relations of power should be understood in local accounts of activity and identity. Thus, we critically review the synthesis of Bourdieu and activity theory in Figured Worlds, analyzing two critiques of Bourdieu: his insufficient localism and his overemphasis on embodiment of habitus. We are left with Bourdieu’s overwhelming concern to explain how the field of power is locally refracted and critique its doxa in a field of opinion, while arguably doing so at the expense of imagination, self-authoring, and world making. We conclude with our own suggestions of a synthesis.     

Techno economic systems and excessive consumption: a political economy of ‘pathological’ gambling

This article argues that gambling is a paradigmatic form of consumption that captures the intensified logic at the heart of late modern capitalist societies. As well as a site of intensified consumption, it claims that gambling has also become the location of what has been described as a new form of ‘social pathology’ related to excess play. Drawing on Castells' (1996) notion of techno‐economic systems, it explores the ways that intersections between technology, capital and states have generated the conditions for this situation, and critiques the unequal distribution of gambling environments that result. It argues that, while the products of these systems are consumed on a global scale, the risks associated with them tend to be articulated in bio‐psychological discourses of ‘pathology’ which are typical of certain types of knowledge that have salience in neo‐liberal societies, and which work to conceal wider structural relationships. We argue that a deeper understanding of the political and cultural economy of gambling environments is necessary, and provide a synoptic overview of the conditions upon which gambling expansion is based. This perspective highlights parallels with the wider global economy of finance capital, as well as the significance of intensified consumption, of which gambling is an exemplary instance. It also reveals the existence of a geo‐political dispersal of ‘harms’, conceived as deteriorations of financial, temporal and social relationships, which disproportionately affect vulnerable social groups. From this, we urge an understanding of commercial gambling based on a critique of the wider social body of gambling environments within techno economic systems, rather than the (flawed) individual bodies within them.     

A theory of how intransitive consumers make decisions

An assumption of transitivity is required for the existence of the utility function of classical economics. However, as argued in the first section, if acquiring and organizing information is costly, rational behavior may require that preferences be intransitive. One might therefore predict that this assumption will often be violated, and evidence is presented that this is the case. We go on to develop a model of preference which does not require an assumption of transitivity, and which can be readily implemented empirically using data on paired comparisons. Using a set of intransitivities, and the forecasting ability of our proposed model is compared with alternatives.