Professions in periods of social change: the case of architectural discourse and design

This article examines how professions behave in periods of social change. The article considers whether professions take positions vis-à-vis broader social discourse, and explores the relationship between the professions’ positions and those of the government. The article examines these questions through the case of the Israeli architectural profession’s behavior after the 1967 war in both the newly occupied territories, over which Israeli control is under dispute among Israeli Jews, as well as the pre-1967 areas, in which Israeli sovereignty enjoys a consensus among Israeli Jews. The article traces both design and construction activities, as well as the discourse that followed in their wake. The article’s conclusion is that changes in professional discourse are a way to understand the profession’s position regarding a given set of social changes. We argue that the transition from an inward-facing professional discourse to an outward-facing professional discourse that addresses the larger society is both an indication of that profession’s condition as well as the condition of the social group to which it belongs.     

The Multisectoral Trilemma of Network Management

This article presents an analysis of different network coordinationstrategies. The article extends network management scholarshipby integrating sector-based differences within a theoreticalframework encompassing extant conceptions of network management.Even as the emergent field of network management scholarshipadvances, current research tends to generalize network managementapproaches based on assumptions that organizations behave similarlywithin a network regardless of whether the organizations aregovernmental, nonprofit, or commercial. Consequently, existingresearch does not fully account for whether sector-based differenceshave implications for network management. This article providesevidence that sector-based differences within a network matterbecause the differences provide strategic opportunities andconstraints for managers involved in coordinating mixed-sectornetworks. This article makes several contributions to networkmanagement scholarship. First, this article provides a frameworkthat reviews and situates current conceptions about networkcoordination within a passive-to-active continuum of managerialapproaches. Sectoral differences are situated and integratedwithin this framework. Second, this article provides an empiricallybased investigation of a quasi-natural experiment that examinessector-based differences in mixed-sector workforce developmentnetworks in Boston. The article's findings suggest that integratingsector-based orientations within a passive-to-active networkmanagerial continuum helps clarify and categorize the strategicoptions and trade-offs that managers may consider in coordinatingmultisectoral networks.     

Excellent and gender equal? Academic motherhood and ‘gender blindness' in Norwegian academia

This article explores Norwegian female academics' experiences with academic motherhood in an organizational perspective. A main finding is that academia as an organization is greedy, uncertain, and has ‘blind spots' that reveal gender bias related to gender and parental status, especially mothers. By analysing the link between gendered organization of work and the legitimatizing of gender inequality, the article reveals ‘gender blindness' in the academic organization concerning gender and parental status. The article concludes that changes in academia — in line with academic capitalism — may indicate that the Norwegian model of work–life balance is under pressure. This article suggests that the organizational conditions for academic motherhood are important factors in order to understand the persistence of gender inequality.     

Preserving the unpreservable: docile and unruly objects at MoMA

The aim of this article is to theorize how materials can play an active, constitutive, and causally effective role in the production and sustenance of cultural forms and meanings. It does so through an empirical exploration of the Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA). The article describes the museum as an “objectification machine” that endeavors to transform and to stabilize artworks as meaningful “objects” that can be exhibited, classified, and circulated. The article explains how the extent to which the museum succeeds in this process of stabilization ultimately depends on the material properties of artworks and, more specially, on whether these behave as “docile” or “unruly” objects. Drawing on different empirical examples, the article explores how docile and unruly objects shape organizational dynamics within the museum and, through them, the wider processes of institutional and cultural reproduction. The article uses this empirical example to highlight the importance of developing a new “material sensibility” that restores heuristic dignity to the material within cultural sociology.     

JOINING FOR CHANGE: AN INTERVENTION OF STATE CHANGE OR AN INTERACTION OF UNFORESEEN CONSEQUENCES?

This article is in response to Laurie Charlés' (this issue) research article on hostage negotiation. It is suggested that her article provides an opportunity for family therapists to reexamine our own taken-for-granted clinical practices, particularly the practice of joining to achieve rapport. Rapport is considered from the two perspectives of either being an experience of the individual (state trait) or as a dynamic process that is relationally accomplished with unpredictable consequences for both participants. Implications for practice and training are presented.     

Class and Other Identifications in Managerial Careers: The Case of the Lemon Dress

This article responds to concerns that research in the field of careers needs to bring together an action perspective with a recognition of the continuing impact of structural and cultural imperatives. To do so this article presents a symptomatic study. Through the concept of pedagogies of the everyday, this combines an action orientation with a recognition of how such pedagogies operate within networks of power. Specifically, the article argues that the development of new gendered understandings of management careers requires greater recognition of the continuing, though now relatively neglected, saliency of class. The article offers a summary of contemporary theorizations of class and concludes with a discussion of possible future directions for this field of research.     

Why some greens are more powerful than others: on destabilisation,power shifts and the democratic potential of NGOs

This article studies how the collective empowerment of NGOs that is embodied in the destabilisation of world politics is distributed among individual organisations in the NGO community. The article focuses on non-governmental power in three global environmental conventions. It seeks to explain power differences between individual organisations in terms of possession of resources such as income, expertise, prominence and independence. In contrast to previous NGO research, this article applies an extensive and statistical approach. The main finding is that there is a global green elite of well-equipped NGOs that is allotted most power. This result is discussed in the light of recent debates on the democratic potential of an expanded role for NGOs in global politics.     

“I’m not male,not white,want to start there?”: Olivia Chow and Identity Work in Toronto’s 2014 Mayoral Election

ABSTRACT

This article uses sociological theories of identity work to extend the research on political leadership. Focusing on Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow—a high-profile progressive politician, an instant frontrunner, and a stark contrast to Mayor Rob Ford’s populist conservative agenda—this article argues that Chow was required to negotiate and mobilize identity in ways that were different from her white male opponents. Based on an intersectional analysis of participant observation in twenty mayoral debates, this article offers three concepts that illuminate forms of identity work on the campaign trail: dispositional requirements, ideological alignment, and political compensatory labour. This article illustrates that the racist and sexist terrain of politics requires a complex set of decisions and actions on the part of marginalized candidates.     

Are sociologists’ publications uncited? Citation rates of journal articles,chapters, and books

Critics argue that few sociological publications are cited in the subsequent literature and that this implies many are superfluous. Data on the number of citations to three kinds of sociological documents—journal articles, chapters in edited books, and books—show that a substantial majority of each type is cited in the subsequent literature. Furthermore, the high proportions of ever-cited items do not result from authors’ citation of their own work. Average citation levels of journals are highly correlated with other measures of journal stature. The average book is cited about as often as an average article in a highly-cited journal, while an average chapter in an edited book is cited about as often as an average article in an infrequently-cited journal. Within-journal variation in article citation rates far exceeds between-journal variation.     

Suitability for Professional Practice: Assessing and Developing Moral Character in Social Work Education

This article considers the importance of an explicit focus upon the ‘character’ of social work applicants and students in debates regarding suitability for professional education and practice. Drawing upon the growing body of literature concerning gate-keeping decisions and the literature exploring the relevance of virtue ethics for social work, this article examines the benefits of an approach that foregrounds the assessment and development of moral character. The discussion is located within the context of the most recent reforms to social work education within England, whilst recognising the international relevance of these debates. It is argued that incorporating an approach informed by virtue ethics has the potential to bridge traditional fault-lines within selection debates that have focused upon the tensions between a widening access perspective and a focus upon academic ability. Crucially, this article examines the curriculum and pedagogic issues arising from a commitment to provide opportunities to develop moral character and virtue. The article argues that a dual focus upon selection and pedagogic issues, with an explicit focus upon character throughout, is critical to the development of wise, effective and virtuous social workers who are able to exercise sound judgment and wisdom across a range of practice contexts.     

The sociological landscape of youth confinement

This article examines key sociological questions that are raised by the confinement of children and young people. Globally, there are approximately one million children held in confinement, and there is an emerging body of qualitative sociological research in this area. This article examines the role that social constructions of childhood innocence and evil play in shaping the processes of protection and removal, and how these constructions play a role in mediating state strategies of punishment and rehabilitation. The article also draws from an emerging body of qualitative sociological research to examine the role of youth confinement institutions in socializing vulnerable young people.     

Concepts of Europe in Intercultural Teacher Education and Training

At a time when teacher education is under close scrutiny across Europe, this article attempt to examine some of the intercultural elements within this key area of education. A principle focus is the conceptualisation of terms such as Europe and European where the argument is made that the use of such terms is deeply ideological and deserves close scrutiny. Following a brief examination of the crucial position of migration in Europe and the social policies consequent upon it, the article end with an account of practice in an English teacher training institution that attempts to utilise some of the conceptual frameworks outlined in this article.     

Understanding sex: the right to legal capacity to consent to sex

This article addresses the right to legal capacity to consent to sex of people with intellectual disabilities. Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities guarantees the right to legal capacity on an equal basis in all areas of life. This article discusses sex as an area of life in which people with intellectual disabilities are frequently not being granted legal capacity on an equal basis. The article examines current capacity to consent to sex law in Ireland, England and Wales in light of Article 12. It proposes an ‘agreement model’ as a potential alternative that would be Article 12 compliant.     

The Social Psychology of Corruption: Why It Does Not Exist and Why It Should

In recent decades, corruption has emerged as a major cause of global inequality and an important subject of social scientific research. This article argues that social psychologists have not taken full advantage of analytical tools at their disposal to generate explanatory accounts of corruption in non‐Western contexts. In the first part of the article, the author maintains that the lack of social psychological research on why people engage in corruption is due to the dearth of empirical data on corruption, the theoretical complexity of this phenomenon, and current popularity of neoliberalism in politics and academic research. In the second part of the article, the author argues that the symbolic interactionism school of social psychology has a number of tools that could be more helpful in exploring the causes of corruption in non‐Western settings than rational‐choice approaches that are currently en vogue. The article concludes with an argument that such analyses could generate culturally sensitive as well as policy‐relevant theories of corruption.     

The institutional origins of American literary history

Abstract

This article deals with the importance of institutions in the construction of literary classifications. Following Mary Douglas, the article offers a double-stranded perspective on institutions that stresses both their social and cognitive anchorage. This is applied to one particular case, namely the genealogy connecting Emerson (and the Transcendentalists) to Jonathan Edwards. The article shows how Perry Miller's 'discovery' of that lineage in 1940 has an institutional history that goes as far back as the early beginnings of American literature as an academic discipline. Part of the function of the discipline, the article argues, is to hide this history in order to bring out the continuing relevance of such taxonomies. The concluding paragraph identifies some implications of this view on institutionalization for current discussions about the (post-) nationality of American literature.     

“Anything That Gets Me in My Heart”: Pat Parker's Poetry of Justice

This article argues that love and justice are interlocking themes that undergird and motivate the poetry and activism of the Black lesbian feminist Pat Parker. Parker was a prolific working-class poet, a committed Black lesbian feminist, and an international trailblazer whose poems, like her famous “Womanslaughter” discussed in this article, document the many injustices that Black women endured in an anti-Black, rabidly homophobic, and patriarchal U.S. during the last decades of the twentieth century. In a political moment where righteous cries of #BlackLivesMatter are heard across the United States I use this article to remind us all of the historical importance that Black lesbians played and continue to play in the struggles of anti-racist justice in America.     

Understanding the Role of National Development Experts in Development Ethnography

International aid architecture has created a space for development experts to operationalise development policies in various capacity. A growing body of literature highlights the agency of this group through an ethnographic lens for deepening the understanding of development practice. However, this article reveals that there is a gap in the existing literature as the roles of national development experts (NDEs) remain rather unexplored in development. This article aims to bridge this gap by introducing the NDEs as an unexplored actor in development and setting an agenda for further research. Drawing on a Bangladesh case this article argues that not only will the accounts of NDEs deepen the existing scholarship but also without their reflections we will only have partial development ethnographies.     

Incorporating translation into sociolinguistic research: Translation policy in an international non‐governmental organisation

This article explores aspects of translation, multilingualism and language policy in the field of transnational civil society. By focusing on translation policies at Amnesty International, an international non‐governmental organisation that performs a key role in global governance, this article seeks to contribute to a globalisation‐sensitive sociolinguistics. It argues that combining a sociolinguistic approach – more precisely linguistic ethnography – with translation studies leads to an increased understanding of the language practices under study. Furthermore, the article calls for more interdisciplinary research, stating that there is space for sociolinguistics and translation studies to contribute to research in international relations and development studies by highlighting the role of multilingualism and challenging the traditionally powerful position of English in transnational civil society.     

Kollegiale Supervision — ein Instrument der Qualitätsentwicklung für die Hochschullehre?

The enhancement of quality inhigher education is an important task for German universities. As this article point out, peer supervision might serve as an important instrument to accomplish this task, if the interchange of ideas on higher education leads to agreements on goals and the development of behavioral standards. Some requirements that should be met to make sure that peer supervision has these effects are described at the end of the article.