The Importance of Governance Levels in Alternative Food Networks: The Case of Red Meat Inspection Rules

Focusing on U.S. red meat inspection regulations, in the context of alternative food networks (AFNs), we explore the implications of different levels of governmental governance for the number of red meat slaughter establishments in the United States. We argue that disaggregating “the state” makes possible a more nuanced consideration of the effects of different tiers of governance. We use regression analysis with data for 40 U.S. states over 40 years to examine the effects of state (subnational) inspection programs and implementation of the federal Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulations on the number of slaughter establishments by type. In this analysis we test two common beliefs among AFN actors: that state inspection helps, and HACCP hurts, small slaughter establishments. It also allows us to make a case for disaggregating governance tiers as we find that state inspection programs and HACCP have significant and opposite effects on the number of federally and non–federally inspected slaughter establishments. Our analysis supports the belief that state inspection is important to small slaughter establishments, but does not support the belief that HACCP has had a negative effect on them. Our conclusion is that agrifood scholars need to pay attention to different forms of governmental governance even with the increased focus on private and third‐party certifications.     

Soundtracking Everyday Life: The Use of Music in Redefining Situations*

As a result of technological advances, music is presently widely available as a means of modifying social occasions. As with other artifacts, the use of music requires technical knowledge. Leaving aside the more crystallized segments of this knowledge, such as musical therapy and movie soundtracking, the study sought to explore the functional correlation college students established between types of music and social occasions. The existence of a body of consistent, though uncodified, technical knowledge is confirmed. This knowledge prescribes types of music appropriate for social occasions, and specifies the particular effects that can be obtained and the role played by some of the music's elements.     

Coming Across: Family Therapy in Australia and New Zealand*

In this Keynote Address I ask where family therapy comes from in Australia and New Zealand, as a way of seeing where it might go. I look at our histories, cultures and traditions and how they are connected. What happened to the old certainties of our field, and where do we take a stand today? How can we come across with courage, imagination and a sense of community? How can we maintain those impulses to justice and to remembering that psychotherapy stands for at its best?     

Asylum Discourse in New Zealand: Moral Panic and a Culture of Indifference

Recent law changes in New Zealand allowing for the detention of a “mass arrival” of asylum seekers reflect a concerning international rhetoric and associated policy trend in Australia and the United Kingdom towards those seeking asylum. This paper argues that, although the New Zealand public has not (yet) reached a “moral panic” that is prevalent within international contexts, there are concerns about a “culture of indifference” in relation to asylum seekers. By providing a policy analysis about asylum seekers and an examination on the associated discourses utilised in international contexts, this discussion presents the New Zealand context through the process of risk signification. The paper discusses how the social work profession can respond to this culture of indifference through addressing collusion (often through silence) with oppressive asylum policies, the need for stronger advocacy and action, and the associated role of social work education.     

Feminist Heuristics: Transforming the Foundation of Food Quality and Safety Assurance Systems*

Food safety and quality assurance systems have emerged as a key mechanism of food governance in recent years and are also popular among alternative agrofood movements, such as the organic and fair trade movements. Rural sociologists have identified many problems with existing systems, including corporate cooptation, the marginalization of small producers, and the depoliticization of consumer consciousness. Tackling these problems requires an epistemological shift. This article argues that the existing systems are based on positivist epistemology and calls for a feminist intervention. To show a concrete example of a feminist departure from the conventional assurance systems, I look at the case of a Japanese women's food cooperative and analyze its unique system, comparing it to its conventional counterpart, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). Feminist epistemology can change assurance systems from being closed, nondiscriminatory, and technical to being participatory, differentiated, and normative.     

Determinants of Food Safety Risks: A Multi‐disciplinary Approach*

Abstract This research employs a multi‐disciplinary approach by developing a model that draws upon psychometric, cultural, and reflexive modernization perspectives of risk perception. Using data from a 1999 national telephone survey, we tested our model on three food risks— pesticides, Salmonella, and fat. Results showed that perceptions of risks do vary by the nature of the risk investigated. Consistent with the psychometric perspective, the level of knowledge and control varied by risk, but these differences did not correspond with levels of concern. Worldview variables were correlated with perceptions of pesticides, indicating the relevance of cultural approaches. High levels of concern associated with each food risk, and the robustness of the relationship between trust and the perception of food risks, raise the possibility that trust acts as a coping mechanism, which is consistent with the reflexive modernization approach. Knowledge and trust were significantly related to all three risks.     

The Glass Phallus: Pub(lic) Masculinity and Drinking in Rural New Zealand*

Abstract In this article I report the findings of an ethnographic study of men's pub drinking in rural New Zealand. By using the idea of hegemonic masculinity and incorporating theoretical ideas of gender performativity, the analysis focuses on aspects of drinking performance that are central to the establishment of hegemony by a particular version of masculinity in this community. Two important characteristics of pub drinking performance are conversational cockfighting and the disciplines of drinking. These combine to ensure that a particular version of masculinity, here called pub(lic) masculinity, is able to reproduce itself. A further finding is that masculinity in this kind of performative situation develops a degree of invisibility. Using the metaphor of the “glass phallus,” I engage with the difficulties of analyzing an invisible masculinity and argue that rendering masculinity visible is an important task for any sociological analysis of both public leisure sites in rural society and the embodied performance of alcohol consumption by men in public spaces.     

Micro/Macro Translations: The Production of New Social Structures in the Case of DNA Profiling*

Examples drawn from the history of DNA profiling in the United States are used to show how knowledge claims about DNA profiling became part of the wider social structure. A crucial aspect of this process was the formation of new social structures at the micro and macro levels. Social order and knowledge formed within a community of practice, the FBI sponsored Technical Working Group on DNA Methods (TWGDAM), was translated and entrenched in new formal social structures, such as the DNA Identification Act of 1994. This in turn gave further stability and credibility to the knowledge about DNA profiling advanced by TWGDAM, as well as their status as a credible professional organization. This article contributes an understanding of the role that new social structures play in linking the micro and the macro levels of social structure.     

Making Men: The Construction and Representation of Agriculture‐Based Masculinities in Australia and New Zealand*

Abstract Gender analyses of farming have become well established in rural sociological literature. In recent years, however, increasing attention has been given to the discursive processes influencing gender relations and identities. In the current paper I continue this trend by exploring how a range of key agriculture‐related masculinities are constructed and articulated in Australia and New Zealand. First, a conceptual discussion identifies the need to consider discourse and creation of knowledge and truths about masculinity. An outline of the research is provided. Then I report on two broad fields in which masculinity is constructed, namely the farm arena and industry politics. Finally, I make closing comments in relation to the possibility of alternative genderings of agriculture.     

Breaking the Food Chains: An Investigation of Food Justice Activism*

This article develops the concept of food justice, which places access to healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate food in the contexts of institutional racism, racial formation, and racialized geographies. Through comparative ethnographic case studies, we analyze the demands for food justice articulated by the Karuk Tribe of California and the West Oakland Food Collaborative. Activists in these communities use an environmental justice frame to address access to healthy food, advocating for a local food system in West Oakland, and for the demolition of Klamath River dams that prevent subsistence fishing. Food justice serves as a theoretical and political bridge between scholarship and activism on sustainable agriculture, food insecurity, and environmental justice. This concept brings the environmental justice emphasis on racially stratified access to environmental benefits to bear on the sustainable agriculture movement's attention to the processes of food production and consumption. Furthermore, we argue that the concept of food justice can help the environmental justice movement move beyond several limitations of their frequent place‐based approach and the sustainable agriculture movement to more meaningfully incorporate issues of equity and social justice. Additionally, food justice may help activists and policymakers working on food security to understand the institutionalized nature of denied access to healthy food.     

A Contribution to the History of Family Therapy in Australia and New Zealand: A Bibliometric Perspective*

The content of the first ten volumes of The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy is analysed to provide a picture of the major themes and subject matter addressed in its formative years using the techniques of bibliometrics and content analysis. A methodology is developed for measuring the prevalence of subject content in the journal which could have application in other fields. The interdisciplinary character of family therapy is demonstrated by the diversity of cited end-of-article journal references. A list of most-cited journals is provided. The characteristics of authorship are discussed with respect to geographic dispersion, institutional affiliation, seniority and gender. The issue of collaborative authorship is discussed in relation to the patterns of co-authorship observed in this period, 1979–1989. The analysis identifies signs of the emergence of family therapy as a discrete field. The paper concludes also that there are positive signs of maturation of the journal. It offers some pointers about directions for the journal in the next phase ofits development.     

Redefining Food Security in a Community Context: An Exploration of Community Food Security Indicators and Social Worker Roles in Community Food Strategies

Large numbers of households experiencing the effects of food insecurity threaten a community’s viability. Although hunger has been viewed as a social problem, research focused on household-level food security tends to primarily focus on the household economics. This thematic overview of academic and grey literature (a) describes community food security (CFS) research and indicators related to accessibility, affordability, community self-reliance, social justice, and sustainability; (b) provides examples of how community social workers can participate, lead or evaluate CFS strategies that can create sustainable food secure communities; and (c) invites social work researchers to develop holistic measures of CFS.     

Myths and Moral Authority in Maluku: The Case of Ambon

Since January 1999, the island of Ambon, located in the province of Maluku (Moluccas) in Eastern Indonesia, has been the scene of a virtual war between Christians and Muslims. Amid its religious underpinnings, two competing nationalistic ideologies have developed, one based on allegiance to an ethnic Moluccan nation and the other to a civic nation of common residence. Attempts to rationalise the underlying sentiment of the masses in these movements have purported rational explanations of the pursuit of common material interests, while others have focused on innate emotions of individual loyalty to their community. The other explanation suggests that identity is constructed as an ideological myth that convinces the individual of the simplicity of otherwise complex situations. In this respect, this paper has focused on the psychological and political appeal of myths of kinship as strengthening ideas of national consciousness and individual loyalty. It is asserted that the construction of new 'us' and 'them' visions of imagined community occur in the context of social, economic and political processes. These disruptive forces place individuals in stress situations and make them susceptible to these ideologies which offer simplistic diagnoses of complex social and political changes.     

Personal Letters, Oral Testimony and Scottish Migration to New Zealand in the 1950s: The Case of Lorna Carter

By blending emigrant letters and oral testimony and illuminating the benefits and drawbacks associated with each source, as revealed in this case study of a Scottish female migrant, this article contributes to the methodology of the use of personal testimony within migration studies. It shows that though there can be some discrepancies between contemporary documentation and later memory, interviews with migrants are particularly useful when they can flesh out areas of interest not contained in contemporary documents. This article therefore argues for greater integration of oral and written testimony in order to capture fully the rich and nuanced personal experience of migration from the perspective of its participants.     

Personal Letters,Oral Testimony and Scottish Migration to New Zealand in the 1950s: The Case of Lorna Carter

By blending emigrant letters and oral testimony and illuminating the benefits and drawbacks associated with each source, as revealed in this case study of a Scottish female migrant, this article contributes to the methodology of the use of personal testimony within migration studies. It shows that though there can be some discrepancies between contemporary documentation and later memory, interviews with migrants are particularly useful when they can flesh out areas of interest not contained in contemporary documents. This article therefore argues for greater integration of oral and written testimony in order to capture fully the rich and nuanced personal experience of migration from the perspective of its participants.     

Postmaterialism in Unresponsive Political Systems: The Canadian Case*

Nous examinons la thèse de Ronald Inglehart selon laquelle le postmatérialisme est un phénomène politique universel qui concerne toute société industrialisée avancée. Après avoir introduit une distinction entre systèmes politiques réactifs et non réactifs, nous proposons que, dans les systèmes réactifs, le clivage matérialiste s'est enracinéà un tel point qu'il triomphait encore du postmatérialisme. Par contre, le postmatérialisme a réussi à se démarquer dans les systèmes non réactifs, ceux où le clivage matérialiste avait toujours été plus faible. Nous soutenons que les données tirées des sondages nationaux tenus lors des élections canadiennes de 1984 et 1997 confirment notre hypothèse sur les effets des systèmes non réactifs. Bien que le Canada soit l'objet principal de notre analyse, dans la conclusion nous nous penchons sur des facteurs qui pourraient expliquer les différences dans le postmatérialisme aux niveaux provincial et international. This article disputes Inglehart's claim that postmaterialism is a uniform political phenomenon that transcends differences between advanced industrial societies. We distinguish responsive from unresponsive political systems and argue that, in responsive systems, the materialist cleavage became so deeply entrenched that postmaterialism could not vie for dominance. In contrast, postmaterialism has become more salient than materialism in unresponsive systems, where the materialist cleavage was weaker to begin with. We argue that data from the Canadian National Election Surveys of 1984 and 1997 are consistent with our prediction about the effect of unresponsiveness. Differences within the Canadian electorate became weaker for materialist issues but more pronounced for postmate‐rialist issues between 1984 and 1997. Although our empirical analysis focusses on Canada, we conclude by speculating about the causes of cross‐provincial and cross‐national variations in postmaterialism.