Competitive sport and aging: the need for qualitative sociological research

The number of older athletes is growing with the aging of populations across the developed world. This article reviews studies from a variety of disciplines that focus specifically on the motives and experiences of older adults competing in physically demanding sports at events such as masters and veterans competitions in Australia or the Senior Olympics in North America. It is shown that the majority of research into this phenomenon has taken a quantitative approach or failed to consider older athletes' experiences in the context of broader sociocultural discourses. Therefore, using the author's research into the experiences of older Australian masters athletes as a catalyst, the need for and strength of sociological qualitative research in this area is discussed. The use of qualitative methods, such as in-depth interviews and observations, and interpretive analysis provided alternative ways of making sense of older adults and their relationship with competitive sport to what is typically found in the sport and aging literature.     

Social research and social policy: The theoretical connection

Thoughtful scholars have discussed the complex nature of the social research-social policy relationship, and yet many persons continue to plan, conduct, interepret, and fund social research as if they expected it to generate facts that have simple effects on policy. This paper argues that such expectations reflect two, untenable assumptions:Simple positivism andfactual efficacy. These assumptions are reviewed, and a more defensible model for the research-policy relationship is proposed based onplausible theory. Implications for the latter model are then explored. The holder of a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Michigan, his professional interests center upon role theory, the study of teaching, social decision-making, and relationships among social research, theory, and policy impact.     

The sociological perspective and policy analysis: A case study approach

Case studies are widely used in law, medicine and business schools. In this paper an example of how the case method can be used in complex organization, industrial sociology or political sociology classes is presented. The case method also lends itself to an applied approach challenging the student to use a sociological perspective in policy analysis. The utility of the case method for instructors using an applied approach is demonstrated.     

The high cost of neglecting children: The need for a preventive policy agenda

Millions of children in the United States suffer from poor care and inadequate services due to neglectful national social policy. More than 13 million children live in poverty and its negative consequences, at great individual and social cost. This paper outlines the need to seriously advocate for a preventive policy approach to child welfare and presents a blueprint for individual and collective political action. The cost-effectiveness and social benefits of preventive policies are demonstrated. Social workers understand the value of prevention in working with children and families, and are needed to advocate on the policy-making level for a preventive policy agenda.     

The Internet of Things: Social dimensions

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a vast, dispersed system in which a diverse array of objects, humans, and other living things is connected via “smart” technologies and the Internet. In this article, I present a thematic review of the literature that focuses on the social dimensions of the IoT. Drawing on research published in sociology, anthropology, cultural geography, critical urban studies, science and technology studies, environmental studies, and human–computer interaction studies and design, I outline key conceptual approaches and then discuss four major themes emerging across these dispersed but cognate literatures: (a) techno‐utopian imaginaries, (b) risks and harms, (c) lived experiences, and (d) interventions into futures. As I show, to date, most of the social research literature has focused on the topics of smart cities and smart homes in the context of the Global North. Some researchers have begun to employ innovative methods to generate new and alternative ways of imagining IoT technologies. The article concludes with proposing directions for future research. These include directing more attention to publics' role in intervening in the futures of IoT, to applications of smart technologies beyond the smart city and home, and the IoT in the context of the Global South.     

The freedom of information act and sociological research

Passed in 1966, The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has provided nearly thirty years of access to government information virtually unmatched throughout the world. Used heavily by the media, it has been virtually ignored by sociologists. Nonetheless, it promises access to a potential wealth of data for sociological research. Following a brief discussion of the history of federal information policy and the FOIA, some suggestions for possible research applications are made. Implications for further research are presented, including the emergence of two new classes, information “haves” and information “have-nots,” indicating a new dimension for stratification research in contemporary society.     

Social networks of old people in India: research and policy

This article presents a comparative analysis of the available research on the social networks of older persons in India. Most of this research has been done in North Indian cities. The research foci of the available studies include network size, core networks and beyond, life course changes in networks, impacts of residency in old-age homes, gender differences, and joint and nuclear family residence. This research is discussed in terms of its policy implications. Because the research demonstrates that social networks are important for the welfare of older Indians, one can conclude that social policy that encourages the maintenance of robust networks throughout the life course may be worth pursuing. One aspect of policy is discussed. The analysis of the relationship between social network and gender suggests that current policies that can be seen as supporting gender inequality in terms of property may have a negative impact on the networks of older women.     

Social dimensions of land rights reform in Liberia: Some unresolved issues and policy dilemmas

This article is concerned with coherence in public policy in highly differentiated societies. It explores the challenges faced when seeking to develop policy in ways which both respond to progressive thinking and protect the interests of the poor. Land policy in Liberia illustrates the theme, specifically the 2013 ‘Land Rights Policy.’ The article shows how pressures for reform of customary governance and gender relations may undermine the institutions of local land management, and threaten the ability of the rural poor to defend their interests. This is of particular concern at the present time, given the appetite of external capital for land acquisition in Liberia, and the close alliances which it is forging with the Liberian elite.     

Climate‐influenced migration in Bangladesh: The need for a policy realignment

Recent research into migration in Bangladesh has highlighted that people migrate for better livelihoods, not necessarily in response to climatic stresses and shocks. If facilitated appropriately, internal and international migration can help build adaptive capacity to future environmental and climatic hazards. In this framing, migration happens in the context of a growing city‐centred economy that promotes remittances to villages. However, a textual analysis of current and recent policies concerning climate change, development and poverty alleviation, and disaster management shows that the economic and adaptive roles of internal migration are often not included in policy framing. We argue that if migration works as a positive step towards adaptation, then the key challenge is to align the policies with this new understanding.     

The sociological significance of ambivalence: An example from adoption research

The current adoption controversy in the United States has prompted researchers to study factors that influence adoptees' attitudes towards obtaining identifying information ¹ about their birth parents. This paper considers the usefulness of some recent methodological perspectives on the contextuality of meaning for the purpose of conducting and analyzing adoption interviews. I will argue that, because of the tendency among researchers to look only for adoptees' reasons for or against requesting genealogical knowledge, the dilemma-ridden nature of their thinking has been ignored. Theoretically, the paper proposes an alternative approach to adoption research and raises the issue of the sociological and methodological significance of ambivalence. Empirically, it shows that contradictory or ambivalent attitudes towards the disclosure of identifying information can be interpreted, not as signs of inconsistency, immaturity or delusion, but in terms of two intersecting moral vocabularies: the ethic of self-discovery and the ethic of reciprocity. Rather than merely expressing individual differences in experience or temperament, these vocabularies reflect moral themes in the culture at large.     

Framing public policy towards a public health paradigm for gambling

This paper examines the public policy value of looking at gambling from a public health perspective. The manner in which social issues are framed will either expand or curtail public policy debates. The existing and traditional frames for gambling (e.g. gambling as a matter of individual freedom, gambling as a form of recreation) fail to consider research on the social and economic impacts of gambling. Because a public health frame offers a broad viewpoint of society, it encompasses a number of social and economic impacts not considered in traditional frames. However, the existing gambling frames enjoy varying degrees of cultural, economic, and political support and, as a result, creating a higher profile for a public health framework will encounter a number of barriers. Research can play a decisive role in overcoming these barriers, as it has in a number of related fields (e.g., tobacco use, addiction and product liability, the epidemiology of AIDS). The paper concludes that research that identifies and quantifies the public health factors of gambling will substantially contribute to a public shift toward a public health frame.     

The racial geography of child welfare: toward a new research paradigm

This article examines the community-level impact of concentrated child welfare agency involvement in African American neighborhoods. Based on interviews of 25 African American women in a Chicago neighborhood, the study found that residents were aware of intense agency involvement in their neighborhood and identified profound effects on social relationships including interference with parental authority, damage to children's ability to form social relationships, and distrust among neighbors. The study also discovered a tension between respondents' identification of adverse consequences of concentrated state supervision for family and community relationships and neighborhood reliance on agency involvement for needed financial support. The author discusses the implications of these findings for a new research paradigm aimed at understanding the community-level effects of racial disproportionality.     

Child care policy: A need for greater advocacy

While some scholars have recognized the importance of child care to families in the United States (Kamerman, 2001; Waldfogel, 1998), child care has not been viewed as a core social policy concern in the United States. In this article, we provide an overview of child care needs in the U.S. followed by an analysis of three major federal programs that shape U.S. child care policy. The first, the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF), provides financial child care supplements to low-income parents to enable them to engage in paid labor. The second policy, The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), is technically a universally applicable policy enabling people to care for a family member in need, including all parents who choose to spend a few weeks of unpaid leave with a newborn child. The third is the U.S. tax policy, including child care exemptions, deductions and credits. We suggest that, though all of these policies exist to help families care for children, they fail the children and families that they are purportedly designed to help. We then discuss the crucial role that professionals who work with families and children can play in shaping U.S. child care policies.     

Exploring the foundations of the intercultural policy paradigm: a comprehensive approach

In this second decade of the twenty-first century, interculturalism is emerging as a new policy paradigm to deal with diversity dynamics. It is basically viewed as a set of policies sharing one basic idea: that the interaction among people from different backgrounds matters. Its concerns are to intervene politically and to propose a way to manage the dynamics of diversity, based on exchange and interpersonal relations. I propose exploring a foundational internal debate, based on the premise there are at least three different, but complementary, normative strands: contractual, cohesion and constructivist strands. My ultimate purpose is to defend a comprehensive view, grounded on the argument that no one can have the sole authority to define intercultural policy, since the three strands can be applied at different moments, according to different purposes. The challenge is for policy managers to be able to achieve a balance between the three policy drivers.