“Me Against the World”: Parental Uncertainty Management at Home Following Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Discharge

This study explored the uncertainty management processes experienced by parents at home following their child’s discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). In-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with 18 mothers and fathers whose children were cared for and “graduated” from NICU units in seven different hospitals from 6 to 183 days (M = 63.58 days). Interviews revealed three types of parental uncertainties: parental role shift, caring through equipment, and adherence to provider advice. Parents relied on three strategies to manage these uncertainties: reorientation, calibrating appropriate responses, and limiting exposure. Findings highlight how parental experiences, communication interactions, and expectations in the NICU complicate parental uncertainties postdischarge and negatively affect parental perceptions of self-efficacy, readiness, and competency. Our findings suggest that family-centered care can be enhanced by redefining discharge as an ongoing process that necessitates distinct uncertainty management practices to negotiate tensions between protecting preterm children and supporting parents.     

EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF RISK AND UNCERTAINTY IN PROVISIONING PRIVATE AND PUBLIC GOODS

This paper uses laboratory evidence from public goods games to examine how in payoff-equivalent situations, decision makers contribute toward private or public goods when they are exposed to different kinds of risks and uncertainties in the provision of these goods. We find that location matters with subjects moving away from the environmental uncertainty in favor of strategic uncertainty when that uncertainty is located on the private good. When the uncertainty relates to the public good, subjects face both kinds of uncertainties on the same good, leading to a significant drop in contributions. An opportunity to reduce uncertainty increases cooperation. ( JEL C90, D81, H41)     

Relationship-based social work and electronic communication technologies: anticipation,adaptation and achievement

ABSTRACT

While social workers continue to recognise the centrality of relationship in social work practice they are now trying to build and mediate relationships with service users in a context fundamentally changed by technology. The paper suggests that different modes of electronic communication are not simply add-ons to society but are altering the social texture of society including the ways that people relate and interact with others. The relationship base of social work is not immune or dislocated from the explosion of social media and electronic communication which is occurring in the wider society and, therefore, attention needs to be paid to the impact of these new technologies on the way in which social work is practised. Using qualitative research with early career stage social workers in Ireland this paper aims to contribute to knowledge on this emerging dimension of social work practice.     

What to Expect: Information and the Management of Uncertainty in Parkinson's Disease

The onset of a chronic illness such as Parkinson's Disease (PD) demands an urgent response to life's fundamental questions. General practitioners (GPs) who care for people with PD may also face anxieties, but these affect their professional rather than their personal lives. However, uncertainty at whatever level requires managing. Both patients and GPs adopt various strategies to resolve their difficulties. One aspect of this process concerns coming to understand, and explaining what to expect of, the disease. Using data from in-depth interviews with people with PD and a separate group of GPs, this paper explores how the differing experience and management of uncertainty by both parties may, if unappreciated by doctors, hinder effective communication between them. Conversely, an imaginative understanding of what PD means may help transform people's experience of the illness. Training GPs to develop skills in understanding the special uncertainties of PD is considered.     

Identity processes in the global era: the case of young immigrants living in Italy

The paper explores processes of identity construction in young people of foreign origin living in Italy. The aim was to understand how youth construct their selves in the global era, characterized by an increase in the possibility of choosing but also in the perception of uncertainty; how they perceive this uncertainty, whether as a chance to construct multifaceted and continually changing identities or as a source of insecurity and loss for their identity. Drawing on 46 in-depth interviews, the research reveals that young people of foreign origin are continually shaping their identities mixing different cultural repertories related to their – or their parents’ – homeland, to the host country, global cultures and youth cultures. Several patterns of identity emerge and they are linked to different perception of uncertainty. A typology of these patterns was developed: young people construct flexible identities or hyphenated identities, or move from a fixed identity to an undefined identity. These types of identity are respectively associated with the perception of uncertainty as a resource, as a constraint, finally with a strategy of reducing or eliminating uncertainty.     

Juggling resistance and compliance: The case of Israeli ultra-orthodox media

In an attempt to examine how resistant discourses are constructed in a highly conservative society, this article presents four discursive forms of resistance used by an Israeli ultra-orthodox Jewish magazine juggling between compliance and resistance in its attempt to subvert hegemonic rabbinical authority. These resistance forms are: cushioning, discursive hybrids, explicit provocation and trivializing. Based on a qualitative content analysis of 229 articles published in the weekly magazine Mishpacha (Family), the study seeks to contribute to the existing literature on resistance in and around organizations by exposing the complex and heterogeneous nature of discursive resistance in authoritarian-religious environments. Furthermore, the paper offers a glimpse into the ways that a social group within a religious society resists authority though without shattering its ideological basis.     

Community Relationship Building: Local Leadership in the Risk Communication Infrastructure

This study examined the impact of the risk communication infrastructures-local emergency planning committees (LEPCs) and citizens advisory committees (CACs)-on risk communication activities in communities where chemicals are manufactured, stored, and transported. Findings indicated low unawareness of both types of organizations and low use of such organizations as information sources or forums for voicing concerns. These organizations played a minor role in communication activities in the community that lacked local city government. Findings suggested that a fully functioning communication infrastructure leads to a healthier community that responds to risks as manageable uncertainties. Infrastructures that can exert little control and are weak cannot be corrected simply by the creation of such committees as LEPCs and CACs. In addition, problem recognition, uncertainty, control with approval, involvement with stake, and knowledge are the focal variables motivating active communication behaviors.     

Towards a Comprehensive Framework for Understanding the Social Environment

SUMMARY

This paper presents a conceptual framework for selecting and organizing concepts of the social environment. It expands upon the traditional Human Behavior and the Social Environment perspectives used in social work curricula in the United States by identifying how a macro-systemconsisting of the intersection of four societal forces (social justice, social problems, social policy, and the political economy) works to influence a micro-systemof community, organizational, and group dynamics. In this framework, the impact of the macrosystem is mediated by collective responses of partnerships, alliances, and networks convened to address these forces. The framework is useful for understanding the complexity and uncertainty of the social environment in modern society with specific reference to: (1) how macro-system forces work to shape a constellation of community and organizational concerns, (2) how collective responses that seek solutions can be understood as instruments for achieving meaningful social change, and (3) how micro-systems concepts of structure (stages of development, systems of exchange, and diversity) and process (power and leadership, conflict and change, and integrating mechanisms) can inform practice.     

A Grounded Analysis of Career Uncertainty Perceived by College Students in Taiwan

The authors examined career‐related uncertainties perceived by college students in Taiwan. Five hundred thirty‐two Taiwanese students responded to a free‐response instrument containing 3 questions related to career uncertainties: (a) the sources of career uncertainty, (b) the experiences at the moment of feeling uncertainty, and (c) coping efficacies toward the uncertainty. Responses were sorted into categories within each question based on the grounded theory methodology (B. G. Glaser & A. L. Strauss, 1967). A hypothetical model was developed to describe college students' perceptions of career uncertainties, experiences of feeling uncertainty, and coping efficacy toward the uncertainty.     

Interstate Relations and the Sociological Imagination Revisited: From Social Distance to Territoriality*

This essay presents a conceptualization basic to the development of a global sociology. Claiming that territoriality is the successor concept to social distance, the author provides an extension of the aspects of territorialization to the entire globe. A global sociology requires a reactivation and global application of two nearly forgotten subdisciplines: sphragistics, that is, the discipline that investigates ideas and practices related to the use of seals and signet rings; and ekistics, that is, the scientific study of human settlements. Among the subconcepts that are elaborated in service to these developments are home territorialization, boundaried communication, and the territorialization of the body politic. Examples are drawn from post-cold war developments in Eastern Europe.     

Aggregation of individuals' preference intensities into social preference intensity

A result of John Harsanyi concerns the aggregation of individuals' preferences into social preferences. The result states that if the individuals in a society and the society as a whole have preference relations that compare probability distributions on a set of outcomes, and the preference relations satisfy expected-utility conditions and Pareto conditions, then a utility function for the social preference relation is a positive affine function of utility functions for the individuals' preference relations. This paper presents an analogous result for preference relations that denote intensity of preference, i.e., preference relations that compare exchanges of outcomes. This approach avoids the difficulties of requiring that the individuals in the society have common beliefs regarding uncertainty. Received: 14 October 1996 / Accepted: 4 September 1997     

Transportation between Globalization and Localization

This paper positions transport at the edge of localization and globalization forces. Drastic changes in industrial organization, transportation systems, trade patterns and environmental quality conditions make the transport and communication sector an internally contrasting and disputed activity with many pros and cons, which are reflected in serious dilemmas and policy uncertainties, at different levels of governance. In order to cope with long-range uncertainties the use of scenarios analysis is advocated. The paper then develops three scenarios and analyses them by using the recently developed spider model. The paper is concluded with some policy lessons.     

Who are the active and central actors in the ‘rising civil society’ in Mexico?

The debate about the rise of civil society in Mexico suggests that the processes of political and economic liberalization are multiple and uneven and, thus, have different and contradictory effects on different social groups. This study takes such arguments into account and examines the nature of collective identities and social networks that are more likely to be mobilized in the rising civil society. Who, with what types of social networks and identities, are the active actors in this rising civil society in Mexico? This study also attempts to identify the central actors who take an active part in multi-sector coalitions. As such a broad coalition often leaves profound effects on politics and society, it is vital to ask which actors are likely to take an important step toward multi-sector coalition making. Using a catalog of 1797 protest campaigns collected from three Mexican newspapers between 1964 and 2000, event frequency analysis is employed to find active actors and social network analysis – blockmodel method and degree centrality measure – is applied to uncover central actors. The analyses reveal that while workers, peasants, or students continue to be very active, the centrality of these actors in contentious networks and coalitions has not increased. New central actors in the rising civil society turn out to be civic associations and NGOs formed around single issues, such as environment, retirement, and human rights. When a multi-sector coalition occurs in contemporary Mexico, NGOs and civic associations are likely to play a crucial role in it.     

Possibilities for Using the Internet in Japanese Education in the Information Age Society

As the globalization of the economy has accelerated in recent years, the Internet has become an essential part of the infrastructure, primarily as a communications medium. In the Information Age society, the ADC principle (autonomy, distribution, and collaboration) has become an underlying assumption, which also applies to the institution of education. The fading power of Japan may come from its educational system, which emphasizes standardization and uniformity, while discouraging creativity and individuality. Now is the time for Japan to reevaluate its educational system at every level so that it better supports the societal and business needs of the Information Age economy. Therefore, this paper proposes five kinds of changes to the Japanese educational system. They are community networks, digital kids and participatory education, growing up digital and youth education, online higher education, and media literacy education for the elderly. First, community networks provide citizens with better and more convenient access to local services, activities, and information. Second, the notion of the digital kid suggests that it should be participatory, including all members of the community. Third, as digital kids grow up digital using the Internet would enhance both intergenerational and intra‐generational communication in the twenty‐first century. Fourth, online higher education should become widely available in Japanese society in the twenty‐first century. Fifth, although media literacy education for the elderly in Japan is yet to come to its maturity, senior network groups are beginning to receive wider attention as they will provide Japanese elderly with a new avenue for communication. When and only when these educational reforms are pursued, will Japanese people be able to participate effectively in the global society.     

无形城市时代城市社会生活特征探析

无形城市是在“后”之时代和全球地域空间这样的时空背景下涌现的新城市形态，它以高流动性和不确定性为主要特征。这种特征成就了特定的城市社会群体，也使得城市社会生活呈现出极具时代感的特征。城市社会心理体现了个性的张扬和自由的释放；城市生活方式因讲究格调和充分享受闲暇而得到提升；城市居民的交往方式既处在一个平等开放的互动平台之上，但也处在互动深度遭受质疑的困境之中。     

Institutionalizing Scientific Knowledge: The Social and Political Foundation of Empirical Economic Research

Scientific knowledge is an essential component of modern society. Consequently, sociologists are interested in its production process and have conducted a broad variety of studies showing how social patterns influence the definition and the boundaries of scientific knowledge. In this paper, I ask how social factors influence the transformation of a ‘normal’ field of knowledge into a ‘scientific’ one. First, I give a brief overview of the development of the sociology of scientific knowledge exploring different approaches to the social foundations and boundaries of scientific knowledge. Second, I present a case study of the transformation of empirical economic research in the 1920s from a field of knowledge produced by journalists and civil servants into a prestigious scientific domain. I use neo‐institutionalist ideas to show that knowledge needs a socially legitimated organizational frame in order to count as ‘scientific’ and I examine how political needs to ‘manage the economy’ build boundaries around economic knowledge and define it as ‘scientific’ in order to control its production, distribution, and communication.     

Global Nomads' Network and Mobile Sociality: Exploring New Media Uses on the Move

This paper explores the convergence of communication and travel and the emergence of a mobile and network sociality, through investigating new communication practices based on the internet and mobile phone enacted by backpackers while on the move. These global nomads produce and maintain mobile spaces of sociality, founded on a complex intersection of face-to-face interaction and mediated communication, co-presence and virtual proximity, corporeal travel and virtual mobilities. Personal communities become a mobile phenomenon, relocalized in a plurality of online and offline social spaces. It is thus argued that network relationships are reshaped and mobilized through reconfigurations of co-presence, proximity and distance in relation to the use of new media. Exploring new media uses on the move can thus provide a useful insight into the emerging social model of the network and mobile society.     

Poverty and Social Impact in the Agricultural Sector: Lessons from Experience

This article draws on the donor experience in agriculture‐sector reforms to analyse the contribution of Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) to improved rural policy. A decision‐theoretic framework is presented showing that effective PSIAs should target reforms where institutional distortions and uncertainty about key policy parameters are greatest. The framework is applied to nine cases of World Bank‐sponsored PSIAs, and results show that, while they have generally been effective, their impacts can be improved by identifying key uncertainties a priori, better identifying and engaging stakeholders, and improving the integration of quantitative and qualitative components.     

FEAR OF NOVELTY: A MODEL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY WITH STRATEGIC UNCERTAINTY

This paper analyzes the production of fundamental research as a coordination game played by scholars. In the model, scholars decide to adopt a new idea only if they believe that a critical mass of peers is following a similar research strategy. If researchers observe only a noisy idiosyncratic signal of the true scientific potential of a new idea, we show that the game presents a single threshold equilibrium. In this environment, fundamental research proceeds with large structural breaks followed by long periods of time in which new ideas are unsuccessful. The likelihood of a new idea emerging depends on various parameters, including the rewards of working in the old paradigm, the critical mass of researchers required to create a new school of thought and scholars' ability to properly assess the scientific value of new ideas. (JEL O31, C72, A14)     

Third Sector Organizations and Migration: A Systematic Literature Review on the Contribution of Third Sector Organizations in View of Flight,Migration and Refugee Crises

Long before the current refugee crisis, third sector organizations (TSOs) have played a pivotal role in dealing with the multifaceted challenge of migration. Researchers have analyzed this role in many ways. What is missing, however, is a comprehensive overview of how the third sector contributes to dealing with migration. To close this gap, we conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) that maps the scholarly debate on TSOs and migration. Our SLR identifies four domains of TSO migration engagement: first, the direct provision of basic services and social welfare; second, migrant-oriented capacity development; third, system-oriented advocacy; and fourth, complementary research activities. We propose a conceptual framework that highlights the contribution of TSOs with regard to individual-oriented and system-oriented services that are necessary for a successful integration of migrants. A key implication of our derived framework is to understand migration as a holistic challenge that requires contributions by different actors on different levels, thus highlighting the need for coordination and communication between the TSOs, the state and other stakeholders.