Sociodemographic Determinants of Occupational Risks of Exposure to COVID‐19 in Canada

The activities performed by Canadian workers in some occupations may increase the risk of exposure to infectious diseases such as COVID‐19. This research note explores how occupational exposure risks vary by labor force characteristics using publicly available Canadian data in combination with a data set providing information on the level of physical proximity and frequency of exposure to infections or diseases faced by workers in different occupations. The results show important sociodemographic differences. First, women work in occupations associated with significantly higher average risks of exposure to COVID‐19 than men. This is driven by their overrepresentation in high‐risk broad occupational categories such as health occupations. Second, older workers (65 years or more), a group vulnerable to COVID‐19, appear to work in occupations requiring performing activities characterized by a lower level of physical proximity than their younger colleagues, with minimal differences in the frequency of exposure to diseases or infections. Finally, workers in low‐income occupations are employed in occupations that put them at greater risk of exposure to COVID‐19 than other workers. This is especially the case for women, immigrants, and members of visible minority groups in low‐income occupations. More broadly, this research note provides insights into the health‐related dimension of the literature on occupational tasks and labor market stratification.     

Cumulative and Relative Disadvantage as Long‐Term Determinants of Negative Self‐feelings*

We analyze the long‐term effects of neighborhood poverty and crime on negative self‐feelings of young adults. Cumulative and relative disadvantage explanations are tested with the interactive effect of (1) neighborhood and individual‐level economic disadvantage and (2) neighborhood crime and economic disadvantage. Results from a longitudinal study following adolescents to young adulthood show that the development of negative self‐feelings (a combination of depression, anxiety, and self‐derogation) is determined by relative, rather than cumulative disadvantage. The poor in affluent neighborhoods have the highest negative self‐feelings, while the relatively wealthy in poor neighborhoods have the lowest negative self‐feelings. Similarly, we find the highest increase in negative self‐feelings is found in an affluent neighborhood with crime and not in a poor neighborhood with crime.     

Determinants of Neighborhood Satisfaction: A Metropolitan-Level Analysis*

Students of neighborhood satisfaction have traditionally regarded the individual as the appropriate unit of analysis. In this present paper we break with tradition proposing that satisfaction can also be viewed as a property of populations. Data from the 1974–76 U.S. Annual Housing Surveys are employed to test three alternative explanations of variation in aggregate levels of satisfaction across 60 metropolitan areas Consistent with the urban-scale hypothesis, a negative relationship is found between metropolitan population size and the percentage of residents who rate their neighborhoods “excellent.” Further analysis reveals that variables representing the compositional and quality-of-life perspectives affect satisfaction in the expected directions as well: the more residents who are incentive- or resource-deficient and the more residents who perceive local conditions as problems, the lower the level of neighborhood satisfaction tends to be. In terms of relative explanatory power the quality-of-life variables appear dominant, although the persistent effects of the urban-scale measure may prove of greatest theoretical interest.     

Determinants of Nonprofit Sector Density: A Stakeholder Approach

Why do nonprofit organizations exist? From an economic perspective, a number of major theories have been proposed to explain their existence. However, when exploring determinants of nonprofit sector density, one needs to take into account that demand and supply factors operate simultaneously and that it is difficult to separate them. By using a stakeholder approach, we develop a more integrative framework for understanding variations in nonprofit sector density. We test this framework by investigating determinants of nonprofit sector density in Texas at the county level.     

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.     

A comparison of multi‐disciplinary groups in the UK and New Jersey

During the past 30 years in both the United Kingdom and the United States there has been an increasing emphasis on the need for the agencies, disciplines and professions who are involved in investigating child abuse allegations and in protecting children from abuse to work together, to cooperate with each other and to coordinate their responses. (See Besharov, 1990; British Paediatric Association, 1966; Kempe and Helfer, 1972; London Borough of Brent, 1985; London Borough of Greenwich, 1987). One way of achieving this has been through the use of multi‐disciplinary groups. This paper will describe the initial findings from a study which aimed to examine and compare the working of two such groups, namely, case conferences in the UK and multi‐disciplinary teams in one state in the United States, New Jersey. The findings from the study show that while there are some similarities between the two types of multi‐disciplinary groups, there are also significant differences in functions, membership, structure of meetings and chairing. However, the major difference that emerges is the more prominent role of representatives from the legal system in New Jersey's multi‐disciplinary teams compared with UK case conferences. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On Track Multi‐Agency Projects in Schools and Communities: A Special Relationship

Social inclusion, multi‐agency projects in education in the United Kingdom increasingly seek to work with participation from children, families and communities and through partnerships with other agencies. In this paper, the complexities of such developments are examined. The paper looks at the wider context of preventative and social inclusion projects and highlights the ways in which schools tend to be the dominant locus of communication, delivery and control in the early stages of project implementation. Schools are seen to be valuable conduits into the community, to have the potential to begin capacity‐building with isolated individuals and to forge informal networks. This presents significant challenges to project and school managers, working towards genuinely empowering multi‐agency preventative work and support. A ‘special relationship’ embracing schools, projects and community appears the most productive way forward for such projects. Copyright © 2006 National Children's Bureau.     

Multi‐sited accumulation of capital: Cape Verdean returnees and small‐scale business

In recent years, policymakers have portrayed return migration as positive for development. In both migrant sending and migrant receiving countries, policymakers expect the transfer of economic, cultural and social capital by returnees to stimulate economic growth. Inherent in these assumptions is the idea of a unidirectional flow of capital from northern countries of immigration to the countries of return. The objective of this article is to contest this idea of a one‐way transfer of capital through a case study of Cape Verdean returnee business owners. To what extent have they accumulated their various forms of capital before emigration, during their sojourn abroad or after return? In this article, I examine the returnees' multi‐sited accumulation of capital and how it corresponds to the resources they need to run a sustainable business. In addition, I analyse how they adapt capital accumulated abroad to the conditions in Cape Verde.     

Multi‐sited ethnography: Opportunities for the study of race

Multi‐sited ethnography (MSE) is an underutilized research method that presents particular challenges and unique possibilities for generative research that can build upon existing theories of race and ethnicity. This review discusses the theoretical and methodological components of MSE and provides examples of both transnational and translocal ethnographic studies. These examples illustrate how MSE as a method can enrich analyses of race and ethnicity by enabling ethnographers to identify site‐specific phenomena as well as social processes that transcend a single locale. MSE, when intentionally paired with methodological framings in line with research priorities, can enable scholars to produce rigorous sociological analysis and theory building. Multi‐sited ethnographies of race can provide a set of analyses that complement a range of other sociological research tools, including single‐sited ethnography and quantitative studies, to deepen our understandings about the production and maintenance of racial and ethnic categories in the United States and transnationally.     

Joining up children's services: safeguarding children in multi‐disciplinary teams

In this article we reflect on the complexity and the contested nature of the roles of multi‐disciplinary teams working with children. This is an increasingly important issue in the current UK child welfare policy environment. The article uses the theories of Etienne Wenger to understand data gathered from five multi‐disciplinary teams working with children. We explore key issues relating to location; information sharing; models of understanding; and professional identities. We hope to demonstrate that the teams addressed tensions creatively through their engagement with diversity while at the same time developing common team values. We argue that effective strategies for making multi‐disciplinary teams work will combine inter‐agency issues with internal team‐specific aspects. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measuring Social “Informatization”: A Factor Analytic Approach*

Some scholars have argued that we are witnessing a new social revolution—social “informatization”—that is comparable in scope and impact to that of the Industrial Revolu‐tion of the eighteenth century. Others have argued that it is a much more modest phase in the ongoing development of communication and information‐processing technology. While there are a number of reasons for disagreement about what exactly “informatization” is, and what its impact will be, two are paramount: (1) conceptual imprecision, and (2) issues of measurement. Using factor analysis, this study aims to clarify its conceptualization, and, then, rather than focusing on a single dimension (e.g., technological or economic), it will develop a comprehensive multiple‐indicator measure that captures the economic, technological, and size (stock) dimensions of social informatization. We find that this measure of social informatization strongly correlates with the general level of socioeconomic development. This result implies that social informatization may be a more continuous and cumulative process than a disjunctive or discontinuous “revolution.”     

A Self-Consistency Approach to Prisonization*

A theoretical model is developed in which prisonization is determined by the self-concepts which inmates bring to the prison. This model was substantively tested using a Likert-type scale of Inmate Reference Group Identification as an index of prisonization. Self-concept was measured by the Twenty Statements Test and scores were trichotomized to form groups having legitimate, low and deviant social anchorage. The sample consisted of 257 male inmates from two adult prisons. The data were gathered by questionnaire in groups of 15–45 using a cross-sectional design. Four hypotheses were tested relating prisonization to type of social anchorage according to three institutional career phases. Using analysis of variance and contrasts it was found that prisonization was the greatest and increased in a linear fashion during successive career phases among those with deviant social anchorage. Those with low social anchorage showed an increase in prisonization during the middle phase and a decrease during the late phase. No change in prisonization according to career phase was found among those with legitimate social anchorage. The results suggest that self-concept plays a crucial role in defining both the likelihood and form of attitude change following imprisonment.     

Multi‐type maltreatment and the long‐term adjustment of adults

Multi‐type maltreatment refers to the experience of more than one form of child maltreatment (sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological maltreatment, neglect and witnessing family violence). Researchers have largely ignored the presence of other types of child abuse and neglect when examining the adjustment problems associated with a particular form of maltreatment. The association between ‘multi‐type maltreatment’ and adjustment was explored in the current study. Retrospective data were obtained on (a) the degree to which maltreatment types co‐occurred, (b) childhood family characteristics and (c) adjustment problems in adulthood in an Australian self‐selected community sample (N=175). As hypothesized, a large degree of overlap was reported in the experience of the five types of maltreatment. Family characteristics—particularly family cohesion and adaptability—discriminated between respondents reporting single‐type and multi‐type maltreatment. Greater adjustment problems were associated with reports of a larger number of different maltreatment types. Multi‐type maltreatment should be recognized as a crucial aspect of the nature and impact of child maltreatment and considered in the development of programmes for the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Standards for Development: Food Safety and Sustainability in Wal‐Mart's Honduran Produce Supply Chains

Public‐private partnerships between supermarket retailers and development agencies help small‐scale producers reach growing domestic markets in developing countries. Drawing on qualitative data that focuses on relationships between producers, development agencies, and Wal‐Mart‐owned supermarkets in Honduras, the research presented here demonstrates how, by introducing food safety standards to development agencies' outreach efforts, but without necessarily certifying producers or offering a price premium, Wal‐Mart uses these standards to simultaneously differentiate production practices by promoting quality, while maintaining a standardized market. As a result, the responsibility and costs for incentivizing growers to change their practices is shifted to nongovernmental organizations. Therefore, although an extensive body of literature describes standards and third‐party certification systems as the means for corporations to control production practices, this research indicates that public‐private partnerships are a new vehicle by which corporations can influence agricultural production practices. In addition, this article argues that the inclusion of food safety standards in development projects leads to the conflation of food safety and sustainability, without adequately interrogating which agroecological processes food safety standards include and exclude. Therefore, retailers' private food safety standards dominate how sustainability is perceived and practiced in the development context.     

The Americas’ Multi‐Polar Displacements as A New Pattern in Haitian‐French Guyanese Migrations

Migration shifts over time. The attractive immigration policy of French Guyana, which allowed Haitians to migrate in the early 1970s, was changed into a repulsive one in the mid‐1980s. This dramatic change modifies migrants’ linear trajectories from the Haitian departure point to the French Guyanese arrival. Many immigrants or would‐be immigrants use multi‐polar and scattered movements. They link origin, third and host countries in the Americas as a system of displacements where migrating becomes an inter‐American journey. On their way out to French Guyana, Haitian emigrants, before being immigrants are already migranrts. Multi‐polar displacements through multi‐polarized migration streams pass through the physical and cognitive borders of neighbouring states. Consequently, this new development in trajectories of Haitian migrations systemically connects de facto French Guyana to other migration poles in the American space and sets forth a theoretical and methodological consequentialness.