Orchestras as “Ensembles of Possibility”: Understanding the Experience of Orchestral Musicians Through the Lens of Communities of Practice

This article examines the professional culture of a UK symphony orchestra and the ways the musicians perceive themselves as a Community of Practice (CoP). The study draws on data from semi-structured interviews. Findings illuminated aspects of a CoP among the musicians, including having a shared purpose, valuing their collective endeavor, and experiencing tension between individual and collective development. These elements provide insights for our understanding of CoP, and highlight critical aspects of musical and interpersonal interactions that emerging professional musicians and advanced students need to develop and skillfully balance if they are to operate effectively within an orchestral CoP.     

Towards a More Social Orientation in Gerontechnology: Case Study of the “Reminiscence Stick”

The purpose of this article is to investigate, through a case study, how social orientation can be realized in gerontechnology's objectives. The focus is on user-driven development process of an “mStick,” which is a tool for storing various biographical material: photographs, texts, audio and video clips, and using it in elderly care services. Qualitative data were collected in 11 pilot cases. The content analysis was used to investigate how the “Gerontechnology's Five Ways”: prevention, enhancement, compensation, care, and research, were applicable especially from the perspective of social implications. The mStick acts as a prevention by offering meaningful contents to life, as enhancement by offering a possibility to utilize elderly person's resources. It compensates weakening abilities by preventing the world from becoming narrower. In care, it helps to see patients as whole human beings with unique biography. In addition, mStick offers potential for, for example, applications in memory research. The implication of this study is to pay attention to gerontechnology's role in supporting the social nature of the human being. This may contribute to renewing caring culture towards a more social and biographical orientation. Limitations of this study include focusing on the early development and implementation process with no long-term use data.     

Non‐Response in a Birth Cohort Study: The Case of the Millennium Cohort Study

The advantages that birth cohort data offer researchers interested in the measurement and explanation of change across the life course are tempered by the problem of non‐response that becomes progressively larger as cohorts age. This article sets out the extent of this problem for the first two waves of the fourth in the series of UK birth cohorts: the Millennium Cohort Study. The response rate at Wave 1 is 72%, declining to 58% at Wave 2. Sample loss between Waves 1 and 2 was due to the failure to trace families who had moved, to contact families at a known address and to refusal. The correlates of these three kinds of non‐response are different. Although non‐respondents are systematically different from respondents at Waves 1 and 2, these differences in the propensity to respond are small compared with the unequal selection probabilities built into the sample design. It is, therefore, unlikely that weighting adjustments will have a substantial effect, over and above the effect of the sample design, on longitudinal analyses based on the first two waves of the study.     

Philosophy on the Ground: An Appreciation of a “Spirit Master”

This essay is an appreciation of Melvin Pollner’s distinctive sociological approach to topics that are usually associated with philosophy. Pollner’s dissertation and early writings took up the theme of “mundane reason,” which he defined as an incorrigible presumption of a real world that is implicit in everyday conduct. Pollner addressed mundane reason, and the reciprocal idea of “reality disjunctures”—momentary divergences between perceptual accounts of the “same” mundane reality—by describing routine exchanges in traffic court and confrontations between doctors and patients in psychiatric settings. Pollner’s work anticipated current enthusiasms for developing novel “ontologies” in social and cultural studies of science, medicine, and other subjects. Although he did attempt to locate metaphysics in the midst of everyday experience, this essay suggests that his “philosophy on the ground” radically transformed philosophical ontology into an original and imaginative way to investigate constitutive activities.     

Adolescent Residents Negotiate the Construction of Social Problems in a Low-Income Community: Making Claims on the “City of Sadness”

The social constructionist approach to research on social issues provides a conceptual means in understanding how specific problems are generated and handled by institutional claims-makers, including the state and mass media. In neighborhood research, the voice of adolescent residents is seldom heard, let alone the value of their claims in relation to the state's construction. This article endeavors to address this in several steps: by outlining the specific developmental trajectory of low-income community in Hong Kong; by examining the dominant state discourse on the nature and “solution” of community problems; and by analyzing the voice of adolescent residents. Empirically, 54 Chinese adolescents (aged 12 to 17 years) were recruited to participate in eight focus groups to express how they saw community conditions. Furthermore, a random sample of 22 parents of the participants was surveyed as comparison. Finally, the article suggests that adolescents' constructions provide significant opportunities developing more critically informed, “bottom-up” agendas for community revitalization.     

Rock on reel: The rise and fall of the rock culture in America reflected in a decade of “rockumentaries”

This article analyzes the filmic representation of the rise and demise of the American rock/youth culture of the 1960s through several popular “rockumentaries.” This article explores the ways in which popular film and music both reflect and define political and cultural movements in advanced industrial societies by comparing and contrasting the plots and narrative techniques of films such asMonterey Pop (1968),Woodstock (1970),Gimme Shelter (1971) andThe Last Waltz (1978). We all remember that time. It was so different for me than for others. Yet we all do tell each other over and over again the peculiarity of the events we shared, and the repetition, the listening, is as if we are saying, “It was like that for you, too? Then that confirms it, yes, it was so, it must have been, I wasn't imagining things.” Doris Lessing,The Memoirs of A Survivor (1974)     

Contributions to the History of Public Relations in the Midst of a Dictatorship: First Steps in the Professionalization of Public Relations in Spain (1960–1975)

ABSTRACT

The practice of public relations in Spain began during the Franco dictatorship, which was established in 1939, following a 3-year civil war. The first consultancy was opened in Barcelona in 1960, at the beginning of a period of economic growth due to a change of direction in the regime. After the end of the autarchy and international ostracism, Spain began an unprecedented economic and social transformation. Public relations thus helped businesses to make contact with an ever-better-informed media and public opinion and, in this way, contributed to economic development while simultaneously promoting associationism and improvement in the teaching of the subject.     

The heritage machine: the neoliberal order and the individualisation of identity in Maragatería (Spain)

Since the inception of modernity, minority and majority identities have been constructed in a twofold process involving the parallel generation of representations of difference and the obliteration of alterity, that is, of other modes of existence. The exacerbation of the modern period in the supermodern era has furthered this process, adapting it to the new forms of neoliberal and post-political governmentality. This is paralleled by a shift from real to symbolic and metacultural forms of interaction that serve to negotiate identity and hegemony in the social sphere. Heritage has become a fundamental trope for the negotiation of identity, access to resources and power, as its production is not anymore bounded to the State but is rather ‘dispersed’ in society. This article explores the way cultural heritage has become a ‘machine’ for the production of dominant and individualised identities interacting in a deregulated market environment in Maragatería (Spain).     

Nurses and the dying: Symbolic interaction as a precipitator of dying “stages”

The impact of nurses' attitudes upon their communication with dying patients is examined from the symbolic interaction perspective. Data were obtained from participant observation in the intensive care and postintensive care units of a hospital and from in-depth interviewes with additional nurses. Characteristics of the situation, nurses, and patients were examined in terms of an Interpersonal Reactions Model. The strength of this model is its emphasis upon the effect unintended judgments may have on a patient's self-image. A stage in the dying process may simply be a response to the nonverbally communicated expectations of interactors with dying persons. This research focuses on the first stage of this model—the differential reaction of nurses to the varying characteristics of patients within the constraints of extra-care situations.This is a revision of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Mid-South Sociological Association in Little Rock, Arkansas, in November, 1980.     

Grouping theories: a response to the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism (JWTC) panel on “Confusion as a Form”

White power and the liberal Conscience: Racial Segregation and South African Liberalism 1921–60 by Paul Rich. Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1984. Pp. viii &; 192. R12,50     

A Practitioner’s Guide to Sampling in the Age of Evidence-Based Practice: Translation of Research into Practice

Evidence-based practice must include the translation of research into practice, and the social work practitioner is the essential link in that translation. As part of the EBP process, researchers must present findings in a way that is accessible to practitioners and practitioners must view the study as relevant and representative of their clients’ needs. This article provides practitioners with tools to interpret research, specifically the sampling process. Our goal is to support practitioners in bridging the gap between research and practice. We discuss how sampling fits with the translation of research and describe sampling procedures. We conclude with a unique three-step approach for reviewing research that is designed to assist practitioners to translate research into practice.     

“We are on air now”: the emotionality of video-recording in the institutional setting

Abstract

This article engages with the practice of video recording in social research. We draw on our research of institutional talk to explore the emotionality of video recording in the context of the studied situations. Drawing on insights from Collins’ theory of interaction rituals, we demonstrate a variety of situational moments in which different participants negotiate the presence of a video camera. Our analysis reveals the emotional aspects of negotiating and appropriating the presence of such technologies by all parties involved in the research process. We contribute to and extend the growing body of literature that discusses the meaning of technology for social research by emphasizing the emotionality of using video cameras in social and research practices.     

Sexual assault while in the military: violence as a predictor of cardiac risk?

The purpose of this article is to determine whether known cardiac risk factors are more prevalent among women veterans who report having sustained sexual assault while in the military. We surveyed a random sample of 3,632 women veterans using Veterans Administration (VA) ambulatory care nationally. Obesity, smoking, problem alcohol use, sedentary lifestyle, and hysterectomy before age 40 were found to be more common in women reporting a history of sexual assault while in the military than in women without such history. An association between myocardial infarction and prior sexual assault history may be mediated in part by known cardiac risk factors.     

Education in times of conflict and the invisibility of disability: a focus on Iraq?

Education has come to be a key focus of the humanitarian response of international agencies in countries affected by conflict, but disabled children tend to be excluded from these education initiatives. Yet the reconstruction process can provide governments with a unique opportunity to reassess the way they educate disabled children, and consider moving towards more inclusive educational approaches. Indeed, crises can be seen as opportunities to ‘build back better’. A review of the limited literature is followed by an account of a disability study in Iraq, and reflections on the way forward for collaborative research on educational reconstruction in post-conflict societies.     

Morality as a Verb: The Process of Moral Development Within the “Family Culture”

The purpose of this paper was to examine many different theories of moral development, view their similarities and differences, and expand upon the role of the family in teaching morality. There have been many stage theories developed in order to understand the process of moral development. In addition, many researchers have criticized the stage models for not adequately incorporating the role of culture in shaping a child's moral stance. We believe that the child's family (not necessarily an American Western view of the family) is crucial in directly and indirectly translating cultural values to children. We review some prominent stage theories to moral development as a point of departure for looking at the crucial role of the family culture. The family teaches morality to children by finding a balance between the forces of individuation and connection.     

Watson Kirkconnell on “The place of Slavic studies in Canada”: a 1957 speech to the Canadian Association of Slavists

This article introduces and reprints a speech by Watson Kirkconnell to the Canadian Association of Slavists in 1957. Watson Kirkconnell (1895—1977) was an influential Canadian scholar, university administrator, Baptist activist, and prodigious translator of verse. The introduction discusses his significant role in the development of Slavic and East European studies in Canada, as founder of the Humanities Research Council of Canada, and as an early promoter of multiculturalism in Canada. In his speech, Kirkconnell discussed his personal encounter with Slavic studies and the early development of the field in Canada, his role in the pre-history of the Canadian Association of Slavists, and the importance he accorded to fostering critical knowledge of the Slavic and East European societies and cultures in Canada. Slavic studies, he argued, were necessary both intellectually and politically: the Slavic and East European literatures constituted “major stones in the arch of modern civilization”; moreover, in the atmosphere of the Cold War, knowledge of the languages and societies of Soviet-dominated Central and Eastern Europe would play a fundamental role in the fight against communism.     

Process evaluation of “Girls on the Run”: Exploring implementation in a physical activity-based positive youth development program

Many positive youth development programs rely on physical activity as a primary program component. Referred to as physical activity-based youth development programs, these program designs have great potential for promoting healthy youth development. This study examined how one such physical activity-based positive youth development program was implemented in order to identify design features critical to maximizing positive youth outcomes. This mixed method, multi-site process evaluation of Girls on the Run (GOTR) utilized focus groups, site visits, and self-report implementation checklists. Implementation scores were calculated to assess implementation fidelity across twenty-nine sites, and qualitative data were inductively analyzed to identify factors influential for implementation. Results reveal variability in how GOTR was implemented. Five themes emerged from the data that represented factors serving as facilitators or barriers to programmatic implementation. These included contextual/environmental factors (e.g., parental involvement, relationships with school personnel), organizational factors (e.g., implementation support and responsiveness of staff), program-specific factors (e.g., curriculum design), coach factors (e.g., existing relationships with participants, responsiveness to participant's needs), and youth factors (e.g., behavioral and discipline issues). Study findings have implications for improving the design of physical activity-based and other positive youth development programs, with relevance to evaluators, program planners, youth development leaders, and others working with children and youth.     

Teachers’ Attitudes about the Integration of Roma:the case of Spain

This article, taking data from my thesis dissertation, examines the attitudes of Spanish teachers towards Roma children (and other ethnic/cultural minorities) in their schools, and the role that teachers, schools, parents and the community play with regard to the integration of Roma in schools and in society. Although teachers’ views of Roma are, on the whole, positive, confusion between acculturation and integration exists in some cases. With the intention of shedding some light on these attitudes, the Roma community within Spain's multicultural context is introduced, and general data provided.

This work is based on original research undertaken in 1996/97, mainly through questionnaires distributed in state primary schools consisting of 25% or more ethnic/cultural minorities. The questionnaire included both closed and open questions.

     

The problem of being a paradigm: the emergence of neural stem cells as example for “Kuhnian” revolution in biology or misconception of the scientific community?

In a thought experiment we want to test how the emergence of adult neural stem cells could constitute an example for a scientific revolution in the sense of Thomas Kuhn. In his major work, “The structure of scientific revolutions, 3rd edn, University of Chicago Press, Chicago” (Kuhn 1996), the philosopher of science, Thomas Kuhn, states that scientific progress is not a cumulative process, but new theories appear by a rather revolutionary sequence of events. Kuhn built his theory on landmark events taken from chemistry and physics, lacking examples from biology. Beginning with Ramon y Cajal’s famous quote, “no new neurons after birth”, from the early years of the twentieth century, and Reynolds and Weiss’s conflicting finding in 1992 of adult neural stem cells giving rise to new neurons, we will test how the finding of neural stem cells in the adult brain matches with Kuhn’s theory. The pivotal problem of defining a paradigm will be our main focus, since the emergence of adult neural stem cells has been acclaimed by the scientific community as the rebuttal of Ramon y Cajal’s paradigm.