Ordinary heroes: England international football players in the 1990s

This paper considers recent debates about the quality of English football, and it also looks at alleged connections between declining standards and the restructuring of the Football League in England. It contrasts the specific qualities of the British style against those more commonly associated in English eyes with the continent and it also looks at the increasing in fluence of television in shaping the consumption of football as a global idiom. It concludes by arguing that growing commercialization and globalization per se cannot alone explain the increased physical stresses on players and the peculiarly robust style of play in Britain. For this one also needs closely to examine discourses on masculinity, class, nation and tradition, and to locate the effects of these discourses as mediators of recent trends in the management and marketing of the sport.     

The co-optation of feminisms: a research agenda

This article introduces the thematic section “The co-optation of feminisms: a research agenda,” which brings together contributions that discuss the appropriation, dilution and reinterpretation of feminist discourses, and practices by nonfeminist actors for their purposes. Recognizing the myriad ways in which feminist scholars and activists have shared their concerns with co-optation within their respective subfields, we propose that it is productive to develop a more substantive research agenda around co-optation. In the first section, we seek to contribute to this by synthesizing the scattered literature on co-optation in various feminist subfields. Subsequently, we present a selection of studies on co-optation published outside feminist studies in order to identify concepts and empirical insights that are instructive for developing a feminist research agenda on co-optation. This forms the basis for a set of guiding questions that we propose could be helpful in analyzing co-optation. The article finally presents the contributions to this thematic section and discusses what each article adds to our understanding and conceptualization of co-optation.     

Unpacking cosmopolitanism for the social sciences: a research agenda

This article calls for a re-conceptualization of the social sciences by asking for a cosmopolitan turn. The intellectual undertaking of redefining cosmopolitanism is a trans-disciplinary one, which includes geography, anthropology, ethnology, international relations, international law, political philosophy and political theory, and now sociology and social theory. Methodological nationalism, which subsumes society under the nation-state, has until now made this task almost impossible. The alternative, a 'cosmopolitan outlook', is a contested term and project. Cosmopolitanism must not be equalized with the global (or globalization), with 'world system theory' (Wallerstein), with 'world polity' (Meyer and others), or with 'world-society' (Luhmann). All of those concepts presuppose basic dualisms, such as domestic/foreign or national/international, which in reality have become ambiguous. Methodological cosmopolitanism opens up new horizons by demonstrating how we can make the empirical investigation of border crossings and other transnational phenomena possible.     

Unpacking cosmopolitanism for the social sciences: a research agenda

This article calls for a re-conceptualization of the social sciences by asking for a cosmopolitan turn. The intellectual undertaking of redefining cosmopolitanism is a trans-disciplinary one, which includes geography, anthropology, ethnology, international relations, international law, political philosophy and political theory, and now sociology and social theory. Methodological nationalism, which subsumes society under the nation-state, has until now made this task almost impossible. The alternative, a 'cosmopolitan outlook', is a contested term and project. Cosmopolitanism must not be equalized with the global (or globalization), with 'world system theory' ( Wallerstein ), with 'world polity' ( Meyer and others ), or with 'world-society' ( Luhmann ). All of those concepts presuppose basic dualisms, such as domestic/foreign or national/international, which in reality have become ambiguous. Methodological cosmopolitanism opens up new horizons by demonstrating how we can make the empirical investigation of border crossings and other transnational phenomena possible.     

The ethics of gambling research: an agenda for mature analysis

The purpose of this article is to explore the ethics of both the anti-gambling and pro-gambling groups as they present their research into the gambling phenomenon. The type of ethical thinking that each group uses will be characterized to show how their ethical views have caused their research to be biased. The second part of this article proposes a modest research agenda for future gambling studies. This agenda rests a foundation of a mature ethical thinking.     

The economic fallout from divorce: Issues for the 1990s

Economic consequences of divorce, especially for women, are negative and persistent according to a range of research studies. The question is whether, given changing social circumstances, this negative economic fallout from divorce is likely to diminish in the 1990s and beyond. Dramatic changes suggest both reasons for optimism and pessimism. On the positive side are the trends toward more continuous labor force participation among women and smaller contemporary family sizes. Negative influences include changes in the labor market for women, continuing problems with child support compliance, the persistence of the wage gap, and the difficulties of combining parenting and employment.The writing of this paper was supported in part by National Institute on Aging grants AG04895 and AG06591. We are grateful to Marina Adler, Sharon Price, Mara Skruch and Lynn White for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.(Ph.D., University of Southern California) conducts research on divorce, widowhood, older women's issues, and family support in later life families.(Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) focuses her research on divorce, bereavement, and the impact of life events on adjustment.(Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University) studies economic trends in U.S. society.     

The graying of "sexual health": a critical research agenda

This paper critically interrogates the concept of sexual health as it has evolved in relation to older adults. I draw on social and cultural studies of aging, feminist studies, and science and technology studies to outline a research agenda which treats sexual health as a point of articulation for a range of technologies and processes which shape mid- and late-life sexualities. Such an agenda may be able to more fully interrogate the sites and processes by which sexualities are being shaped, the forms of sexual agency on offer to older people, and the contemporary reconstruction of sexual life courses.     

Towards a postmodern research agenda for public relations

The theory and practice of public relations are largely based on a modernist understanding of organization that privileges management perspectives and a strategic focus in the field. This article explores the possibility of postmodernism as an alternative theoretical approach to public relations. Postmodernism rejects the manager as a rational being who has the ability to determine organizational outcomes through strategies. Modernist public relations is examined as a hegemonic practice that interpellates practitioners into the system to legitimize the perspectives and actions of corporate managers as objective knowledge, particularly through discursive practices in organizational media. Public relations’ media relations role is critiqued for its creation of a hyperreality and the resulting crisis of representation. The paper concludes with suggestions for a postmodern research agenda based on reflexivity.     

The American sociologist: Characteristics in the 1990s

This article describes the characteristics, theoretical preferences, and political orientations of sociologists in the United States. The findings are the most representative of their kind reported to date. Other professional groups, such as psychiatrists, have been studied over time (Gallagher, 1977; Gallagher et al., 1987; Gallagher et al., 1990), but studies of sociologists have been almost non-existent. In fact, there has only been one study of this nature conducted in the 1990s, and that one sampled only sociologists whose names appeared on the membership list of the American Sociological Association (Sanderson and Ellis, 1992). However, that sampling frame did not provide a representative cross-section of American sociologists because it excluded the large proportion of sociologists who are not members of the ASA and who probably are systematically different than members. It is ironic that sociologists who intensively study the characteristics of all sorts of groups know so little about themselves. That is a major reason why this project was undertaken.     

Developing a research agenda in biogerontology: physiological systems

The Biology of Aging Program (BAP) at the National Institute on Aging supports research in many areas, including processes of cell senescence and apoptosis, genetic influences on aging, and how aging leads to tissue dysfunction. Several approaches to research on aging physiological systems are described, along with BAP programmatic efforts to enhance and support that research. Understanding the relation between aging and tissue dysfunction has led to new insights into how health can be improved for aged individuals.     

New frontiers in qualitative longitudinal research: an agenda for research

This paper outlines the state of the art in qualitative longitudinal methodology, reflecting on more than 10 years of development since a previous special issue on qualitative longitudinal research was published by the International Journal of Social Research Methodology in 2003. The papers presented in this special issue emerge from a methodological innovation network that brought together an international community of researchers in order to map new frontiers for the method. This paper summarises the development of the method from a design to a sensibility, identifying three new frontiers as part of a future research agenda including: the need for a processual imaginary; experimentation with temporal perspectives and orientations and explicating the temporal affordances of our methods.     

From bedside to bench: research agenda for frailty

The American Geriatrics Society sponsored a working conference in January 2004, funded by the National Institute on Aging, to establish the state of the art in frailty research and to set a research agenda for the future. The invited participants included senior basic biologists, epidemiologists, geneticists, and clinical investigators who study aging-related issues. This article summarizes the central theoretical observations on frailty and research needs and opportunities presented and discussed at this conference, and lays out an agenda for future research on frailty.     

Transmigration and urban social work: towards a research agenda

Many Western European countries, and especially the larger cities within these countries, are making a transition towards super-diversity. This shift towards super-diversity is also characterised by a growth of the phenomenon of transmigration, whereby people frequently move back and forth across borders. The social life of transmigrants is not only oriented towards their country of residence, but also consists of complex networks beyond boundaries. Transmigrants constantly shift between different modus operandi and between different visible and invisible, local and global networks. Many transmigrants face a high risk of social vulnerability and are overrepresented in the client population of urban social services. Although much research has been done on transmigration on the one hand, and on international social work on the other hand, the effect of transmigration on social workers and on social work practice is still under-investigated. Based on social work research in Brussels and Antwerp, the authors research the challenges transmigration poses to social work. They demonstrate that there is a difference in perspective between the translocal and transnational lives of transmigrants on the one hand versus the locally rooted practices of social workers on the other hand. Using this analysis as a springboard, they identify a number of avenues for additional inquiry in this field.     

Family-Centered Practice in the 1990s:

This paper presents a multicultural perspective for family-centered social work practice. Such a perspective uses ethclass and value orientation theory as sensitizing conceptual frameworks for understanding a family's cultural reality. This understanding, used by a multicultural practitioner, leads to the use of approaches most congruent with the multicultural world views of the families served.