Who is responsible for this? Assigning rights and consequences in elder care

In the context of providing health and human services for older individuals, modern American culture often depends on formally asserting and battling over a clashing array of rights among respective combatants as a first resort at problem-solving. A substantial impediment exists in our cultural environment that discourages families and professionals, and the agencies that employ them, from recognizing and respecting the rights of older persons in a less adversarial and more subtle, sensitive, and flexible manner. This article discusses this barrier, illustrating it in several aging-related settings, and suggests a paradigm for addressing the situation. Then, several current challenges to the rethinking of rights and responsibilities in geriatric and gerontological practice are acknowledged.     

Who is Policing the Community? A Comprehensive Review of Discrimination in Police Departments

This paper is a systematic review of the literature on diversity in police forces. We focus on four main empirical domains that have received the bulk of the attention in the literature 1) recruitment 2) hiring, 3) promotion, 4) organizational contexts. We argue that this literature would be better served by integrating findings into the emerging theoretical framework of racialized organizations theory (Ray et al. 2017) which sees organizations as a key meso‐level factor reproducing both individual and state level racial inequality. Building from here, we described our methodological approach for systematically reviewing the extant literature and present our findings. Lastly, we conclude with highlighting sociopolitical and policy implications uncovered by our findings, for contemporary American policing.     

Negative connotations in the use of the term “public relations” in the print media

A taxonomy of the connotative meanings of the term “public relations” was developed using 100 articles chosen from the popular press that yielded 254 uses of the term. Eight categories evolved: public relations used correctly, public relations as a corrupter of the channels of communication, public relations as a corrupter of the democratic process, public relations as sleight of hand, public relations and winners and losers, public relations misused as a synonym, and public relations used as an identifier. Less than 5 percent of the citings were judged to use the term correctly; 37 percent were negative, and only 17 percent were positive.Henderson is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.     

Competition-induced punishment of winners and losers: Who is the target?

We elicit punishment after competition. Our experiment creates a setting in which winners and losers are assigned in a pairwise speed-based calculation task. As in Abbink and Sadrieh’s (2009) joy-of-destruction game punishment is executed by burning parts of another participant’s endowment. We manipulate the target of punishment to investigate whether it is driven by discrimination of the direct opponent, the outgroup or by joy of destruction. Furthermore, we analyze the role that the clarity of victory or defeat plays for punishment after competition. Our findings suggest that losers face punishment from particularly dominant winners and—to a lesser degree—from particularly frustrated losers. Winners face undifferentiated punishment from all sides. Our results have implications for the prevention of destructive behavior within organizations which use competitions in order to induce effort.     

Wholly responsible for a part, or partly responsible for a whole? The concept of spiritual care in nursing

Spiritual care is an inseparable part of patient care--not the exclusive province of chaplains, religious nurses, or would-be psychoanalysts. Its essence is the capacity to enter the world of others and respond to them with feeling, and every nurse should feel confident about giving such care.     

A Self-help Website for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Who is Accessing the Website?

The OCD Challenge is an interactive self-help website for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD is often untreated and many barriers prohibit access to an evidence-based intervention including cost, lack of providers, and stigma. Analysis of 436 website participant's demographic data revealed that 63.1% were female, 80.5% were Caucasian, the mean age was 33.37 and the mean age of onset was 15.37. Results of the 436 website users showed a significant positive correlation between Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) assessment scores and disability as well as anxiety and stress scores. Future studies should examine the feasibility of the OCD Challenge at decreasing OCD, disability, depression, anxiety, and stress scores.     

Who is advocating for children under six? Uncovering unmet needs in child advocacy centers

Evidence suggests that children under the age of 6 years are affected by trauma, yet there are few studies available to determine how well their needs are addressed in the mental health system. Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) offer a promising avenue for expanding the system of care for very young children exposed to sexual and/or physical abuse. This study used a mixed-methods approach to examine the type and extent of CAC services for very young children in one state. Quantitative results revealed that the youngest children were less likely to be referred for counseling and less likely to already be engaged in counseling when an investigation is initiated. Qualitative results from interviews with CAC advocates suggest that advocates have variable perceptions regarding the effects of trauma on young children, and they do not consistently receive training in the mental health needs of traumatized children under 6. Our results confirm the need for an expanded system of service delivery for the youngest and most vulnerable child maltreatment victims.     

What is the Main Significance of Economic for Sociological Theory?

This paper reconsiders classical and neoclassical economics’ significance for or affinity and convergence with sociological theory. The paper identifies certain types or elements of classical and neoclassical economics that are potentially significant or convergent with sociological theory: pure market economics, the economics of society cum the “rational choice model”, and social or sociological economics. First, it argues that as pure economics economic theory’s significance for or affinity and convergence with sociological theory is low because the first is inconsistent with or divergent from the latter, notably theoretical economic sociology. Second, the paper suggests that as the economics of society economic theory’s significance for or affinity and convergence with sociological theory is non-existent or minimal, because the “rational choice model” is missing or an exception within conventional economics. Third, the paper proposes and demonstrates that classical and neoclassical economics’ main significance for or affinity and convergence with sociological theory lies in social economics as its second ingredient, alongside market economics. The paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between economic and sociological theory and economics and sociology overall.     

Who Has the Power? The Role of NPOs in Local Authorities

Recent years have seen accelerated processes of decentralization and devolution of social services from central government toward local authorities and from them to non-profit organizations (NPOs). This article describes a case study of the process of transition of power from a local authority to a NPO and the outcomes of this transition on public policy making. The findings presented in the article are based on a qualitative analysis of documents over a period of 7 years (1999–2006) in a large local authority in Israel and its relations with a NPO which provide services for the elderly.     

Implementing legislative strengthening programmes: Who is in control?

Over the last few decades, international development (also known as Official Development Assistance (ODA)) has been under attack for its lack of effectiveness. Critiques reflect two conceptual challenges, the nature of expert knowledge and the centrality of local ownership of development initiatives, bounded by the practical constraint of how politically controlled resources from bilateral and international donors will be used. This article examines five implementation strategies, including their strengths and weaknesses, keyed to the level of control asserted by the donor agency. We illustrate our argument through a review of legislative strengthening projects, most of which were funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) in the case of one of the models.     

What is the Bottom Line for Nonprofit Organizations? A History of Measurement in the British Voluntary Sector

Over the last two decades, nonprofit organizations in the United Kingdom (UK) have faced increased pressure to measure their activities in order to demonstrate their competency, to achieve legitimacy, and to obtain funding. This paper draws from recent literature in the sociology of science to examine quantification in the British voluntary sector as a historically situated and socially constructed process. Using archival and secondary documents, I find that quantification is not a new practice for charities in the UK; moreover, while they have employed metrication in the past, what activities nonprofits have measured, and the importance of measurement for their organizational success, has altered over the course of the century.

Who Writes the “Therapeutic Story” of Families in Extreme Distress: Overcoming the Coalition of Despair

ABSTRACT

When families in extreme distress come to social workers, the enormity of their needs often stresses the workers. The problems which these families face often require material and personal resources in excess of what the agency can provide. This places the worker in a position of being under pressure from both sides the clients and the organization. In these situations, the workers and families together can become subject to a coalition of despair. It is characterized by exhaustion and losing hope that therapeutic change is possible. A way to overcome or avoid the coalition is proposed.     

Who Speaks for the Place? Cultural Dynamics of Conflicts Over Hazardous Industrial Development

Research in environmental sociology typically focuses on how communities mobilize against polluting industries in “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) reactions or accept industrial pollution. Instead, I explore how different groups react to the same proposed development with divergent NIMBY and “place it in my backyard” (PIMBY) demands. I use the emblematic case of controversial proposed copper mines in the rural Iron Range region of Minnesota to examine how different social actors use cultural repertoires to interpret development and assert legitimacy in making decisions about the place. Through interviews, ethnographic observation, and discourse analysis, I find that decisions about mining development become controversial because of how the projects resonate, or conflict, with people’s emotional meanings of place, not simply material benefits or scientific assessments of pollution. Pro-mining mobilization from rural, white, and working-class residents is justified by the right to defend a way of life. Opposition from environmentalists is framed as protecting a cherished place understood through experiences of outdoor recreation and wilderness that is now threatened by development. I advance environmental sociology by using concepts of cultural repertoires and place to examine cultural dynamics of environmental conflicts and how groups construct meanings of justice and assert legitimacy.     

Where is the border? Current issues in the diagnosis and treatment of the borderline

Differential diagnosis of subtypes of individuals meeting criteria for borderline personality disorder has received only limited attention in the recent social work literature on the borderline. Whether the borderline disturbance is moderate or severe, the condition may overlap with several borders, suggesting that borderline personality disorders are a heterogeneous group of conditions. Discrimination between different subtypes is necessary in order to help clients obtain the optimum combination of treatments.