Stress and Distress in Migration: Twenty Years After1

Based on qualitative interviews with a group of immigrant women, “Stress and Distress in Migration: Problems and Resources of Turkish Women in Denmark” was published in this journal in 1984. Twenty years later, the same group was contacted and reinterviewed with the purpose of investigating the changes that had taken place in actual living conditions and subjective perception of well‐being. Although the material situation of the women had markedly improved, and the number of somatic complaints had decreased, the level of distress was still high twenty years later. The changes in the women's conditions, expressions of grief, and implications for interventions are discussed.     

Twenty Years and Counting: Thoughts about Measuring the Upper Tail

This article first describes the main developments in measuring the upper tail of the income and wealth distributions over the last twenty years. Second, it points out some of the key methodological challenges and how better data could address them. Third, it discusses the academic and policy impacts of upper tail measurement.

     

Still Lonely After All These Years

Sociological Forum -     

A Comparison of Accelerated and Traditional MSW Students: Twenty Years Later

Abstract

There has been concern about the ideal length of time to effectively offer graduate content. Programs of less than two full years have been suspect. Thus study reports on two groups of social workers in the same program who have been professionally active for over twenty years. They completed the master's requirements under two different time conditions: One group completed study in twelve months; the other in the traditional two year period. The accelerated group reported the five major curriculum areas were more useful in their practice. In addition, they reported higher long-range achievement scores on the identical objectives of both programs.     

The Polls Trends: Twenty Years of Public Opinion about Global Warming

Over the past 20 years, there have been dozens of news organization,academic, and nonpartisan public opinion surveys on global warming,yet there exists no authoritative summary of their collectivefindings. In this article, we provide a systematic review oftrends in public opinion about global warming. We sifted throughhundreds of polling questions culled from more than 70 surveysadministered over the past 20 years. In compiling the availabletrends, we summarize public opinion across several key dimensionsincluding (a) public awareness of the issue of global warming;(b) public understanding of the causes of global warming andthe specifics of the policy debate; (c) public perceptions ofthe certainty of the science and the level of agreement amongexperts; (d) public concern about the impacts of global warming;(e) public support for policy action in light of potential economiccosts; and (f) public support for the Kyoto climate treaty.     

The News of Inclusive Education: a narrative analysis

This paper investigates a nationally publicised case in the debate over the best method of educating millions of children with severe disabilities. Using Fisher's narrative paradigm, this paper analyses 4 years of the extensive media coverage of the legal battles of Mark Hartmann's family. The 11-year-old's parents took the Loudoun County, VA, Board of Education to court to reinstate their autistic son in a regular classroom. Much media attention focused on the story because it dramatised the issues concerning the national debate about inclusion. The paper provides a synopsis of the narratives about inclusive education within the news media that arose from their coverage of the Hartmann case. Through the press, competing interests told their stories to the public, hoping to win the moral high ground and persuade others of the 'good reasons' that support their understanding of the costs or benefits of inclusion. Although the Hartmanns lost in court, this narrative analysis suggests that the family and its supporters provided more persuasive narrative themes in the news media's court of public opinion, thus advancing the national inclusion movement.     

An Inclusive Definition of Spirituality for Social Work Education and Practice

A formidable body of recent literature advocates the incorporation of spirituality into the bio-psycho-social framework of social work education and practice. No consistent conceptualization of spirituality has been developed, however, that can be used with all clients and that is fully consonant with social work values as taught in schools of social work. Certain culturally derived perspectives regarding spirituality have been endorsed in social work literature in a way that does not fully honor each client's view of the nature of existence. This article proposes an inclusive definition of spirituality for social work education that considers every client's perceptions regarding what is unknowable as equally valid. Case examples, suitable for classroom education, are presented.     

Partial Paradigm Shifts in the Social Sciences: Twenty Years of Research in Rural Sociology3

Abstract Falk and Zhao (1989) have recently suggested that increased theoretical diversity characterizes the last decade of published research in Rural Sociology. We suggest that this claim is premature, given paradigmatic trends in the larger discipline of sociology. From a reanalysis of data sources and the use of an analytical framework based on the partial paradigm concept, we conclude that rural sociology is attempting to further integrate theory, methodology, and image of the subject matter within a positivistic partial paradigm framework. We further suggest that rural sociologists continue their pursuit of a reflexive understanding of the practice of social science as an integral part of their research agenda.     

Reflections on Intergenerational Policy in Europe: The Past Twenty Years and Looking into the Future

This article will start from a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-sponsored meeting on intergenerational programs in Dortmund, Germany, in 1999, as this was an awareness-raising moment for intergenerational programs in Europe. The connection between lifelong learning and intergenerational learning as one reason for the increased interest for intergenerational programs in the creation of European policy are discussed and connected to demography, health, aging, and well-being in policy. Therefore recent actions and reports from a European perspective are analyzed in order to reflect over the social and cultural factors that can have an impact and influence the intergenerational field in Europe in the future.     

Relative Deprivation and Social Movements: A Critical Look at Twenty Years of Theory and Research*

The relative deprivation perspective was widely employed in the social movement literature of the late 1960s and early 1970s. In spite of the growing popularity of some newer approaches which criticize the relative deprivation perspective (resource mobilization or resource management perspectives), there have been no attempts to analyze and evaluate the relative deprivation perspective in any systematic fashion. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the “classic” relative deprivation literature in order to critically assess the perspective on the basis of its theoretical coherence and clarity and its empirical validity. The general conclusion reached is that while the relative deprivation perspective was an advance over earlier approaches which viewed social movements as resulting from the expression of irrational impulses, the relative deprivation perspective is itself affected by too many serious conceptual, theoretical, and empirical weaknesses to be useful in accounting for the emergence and development of social movements.     

The College Mental Health Center: A Report After Ten Years

Abstract

The College Center is a unique mental health facility providing care for thousands of students from many colleges in the Greater Boston area. The authors report on data collected during the 1975–76, 1976–77 school years regarding patient variables such as: gender, year in school, academic major, presenting problem, and others. The center's handling of these patients is reported in terms of diagnoses, treatment recommendations, and numbers of visits. Several commonly held staff assumptions and hypotheses are tested, and from the data available in this study, are not generally confirmed. The impressions, however, of a more recent decrease in antisocial acting out behavior and drug abuse (other than alcohol) and an increase in patients presenting with more classical neurotic and adjustment symptoms are confirmed.     

Twelve Years After: The Berlin Wall as Will and Idea

The Berlin Wall at different times in its ignominious history has been demonized by Western opinion less because of its real paltry role in the Cold War tension in Europe than because of the fears and frustrations it generated within Europe. This is the central theme and claim of this paper. We attempt to show through an excursion of personal and institutional events how the perceptions of Soviet communist realities were refracted through the icon of the Wall as a Cold War symbol.