Evaluating the impact of a healthy corner store initiative on food access domains

Healthy Corner Store Initiatives (HCSIs) are one food access strategy that aims to improve food environments by supporting local food stores in expanding their healthy offerings. This study presents the evaluation results from one such HCSI. Fresh Foods Here evaluated its network of eight stores in Columbus, Ohio between November 2013 and August 2014. Data from invoices, inventories, rapid market assessments, and customers surveys were analyzed for evidence of impact on the service delivery and personal domains of food access. For some indicators, initial gains were concentrated between pre- and interim evaluation periods, followed by either a leveling off or decline between interim and post. However, overall results were promising, with increases noted in the number of healthy items ordered by store owners, in daily foot traffic and transactions, and in consumer confidence for certain healthy behaviors. Lessons learned concerning the operation and evaluation of HCSIs are shared.     

Fair Trade: Social regulation in global food markets

This article analyzes the theoretical and empirical parameters of social regulation in contemporary global food markets, focusing on the rapidly expanding Fair Trade initiative. Fair Trade seeks to transform North/South relations by fostering ethical consumption, producer empowerment, and certified commodity sales. This initiative joins an array of labor and environmental standard and certification systems which are often conceptualized as “private regulations” since they depend on the voluntary participation of firms. I argue that these new institutional arrangements are better understood as “social regulations” since they operate beyond the traditional bounds of private and public (corporate and state) domains and are animated by individual and collective actors. In the case of Fair Trade, I illuminate how relational and civic values are embedded in economic practices and institutions and how new quality assessments are promoted as much by social movement groups and loosely aligned consumers and producers as they are by market forces. This initiative's recent commercial success has deepened price competition and buyer control and eroded its traditional peasant base, yet it has simultaneously created new openings for progressive politics. The study reveals the complex and contested nature of social regulation in the global food market as movement efforts move beyond critique to institution building.     

Producer constructions of quality in regional speciality food production: a case study from south west England

Within the context of recent concerns over potential health threats from BSE, E.Coli and genetically modified organisms, food quality is of increasing importance in contemporary British society. Thus food producers, retailers and government institutions are engaged in an attempt to reassure consumers that their food is of high quality and safe to consume. Yet, the concept of `quality’ is one which is contested, constructed and represented differently by diverse actors operating within a variety of regulatory and market arenas. The aim of this paper is to focus on one set of actors who interact to construct notions of quality within a niche market arena, namely small producers of regional speciality food products (SFPs) in the south west of England. It emerges that, despite new regulatory frameworks and consumer concerns, producers usually define quality in terms of product specification and attraction rather than through official certification schemes or association with region of origin. Food quality, however defined by producers, is essentially self-regulated and constructed within the context of maintaining stable relationships between producers and buyers. Furthermore, marketing is based on low-cost methods which demand a high personal input of time and energy from the entrepreneur. Quality, therefore, must be understood as a contested notion which is constructed by actors attempting to build stable and lasting networks between themselves and others within the market arena.     

Civil society challenges the global food system: the International Monsanto Tribunal

ABSTRACT

The global food system has severe implications for human health, soil quality, biodiversity, and quality of life. This paper provides an analysis on how transnational alliances challenge the global food system. We illustrate this by focusing on the activities and hearings of the International Monsanto Tribunal (IMT), held in the Hague in 2016. The IMT provided a platform for civil society and enabled transnational alliances to demand attention for local struggles and legal disputes in relation to Monsanto’s products. With the involvement of independent and renowned experts, the knowledge exchange between local victims and civil society was enhanced, and the IMT reinforced social movement’s goals towards demanding justice for the negative effects associated with the global food system. The advisory opinion determined that Monsanto’s practices are in violation with human rights standards. The IMT exemplified that there is an immediate need for structural change in the current global food system.     

Moving beyond class: A critical review of labor‐environmental conflicts from the global south

Popularly referred to as the “Blue‐Green conflicts,” the tensions between labor and environmental movements have received extensive scholarly attention as it exposes the trade‐off between the economy and the environment. The jobs versus the environment trade‐off has been a focal point of tension in the relationship between trade‐unions and green movements across the globe. In this article, I critically review the existing literature on labor and environmental conflicts from a Global South standpoint. The review exposes how the extant literature on labor‐environmental relations almost exclusively focuses on cases and settings in the Global North, thereby centering the process of inquiry entirely around western social contexts and movements. In this article, I demonstrate why the conception of environmentalism as a middle‐class phenomenon within the extant literature is problematic as; (a) it fails to consider the poor and working‐class environmental movements in countries in the Global South, and (b) it completely overlooks the environmental justice movements and other working‐class environmental movements in the Global North itself. The review highlights the need to bring postcolonial movements and settings to the center of sociological analysis to decolonize the research on social movements.     

Embeddedness and local food systems: notes on two types of direct agricultural market

Direct agricultural markets, predicated on face-to-face ties between producers and consumers, are often seen as central components of local food systems. Activists and academic analysts often assume that trust and social connection characterize direct agricultural markets, distinguishing local food systems from the “global food system”. This article examines that premise about direct agricultural markets, using the concept of social embeddedness from economic sociology to analyze the interplay of the economic and the social. Specifically, it draws on Block's (1990) elaboration of the concepts of marketness and instrumentalism to qualify the concept of social embeddedness. Taken together, and augmented by consideration of how they relate to power and privilege, these concepts provide an analytical framework that more accurately describes the social relations of two types of direct agricultural markets — the farmers’ market and community supported agriculture. In providing an alternative market, farmers’ markets create a context for closer social ties between farmers and consumers, but remain fundamentally rooted in commodity relations. In attempting to construct an alternative to the market, as reflected in an explicit emphasis on community and in the distinctive “share” relationship, community supported agriculture moves closer towards the decommodification of food. Nonetheless, in both types of direct markets, tensions between embeddedness, on the one hand, and marketness and instrumentalism, on the other, suggest how power and privilege may sometimes rest more with educated, middle-class consumers than with farmers or less-advantaged consumers. Recognizing how marketness and instrumentalism complicate social embeddedness is critical for understanding the viability, development and prospects of local food systems.     

Urban development strategy in an era of global competition: The case of south China

The economic structure of south China, including Hong Kong, has undergone rapid changes in the last 20 years. The transformation is more rapid in the wake of the opening up of China's economic system. This paper argues from the vantage point of the New International Division of Labour (NIDL) and investigates the impact of economic development and urban development strategies on the region. It reviews the process of economic development and the flows of resources, capital and labour forces in China as a whole, with special reference to Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region. Increasing economic integration has led to interaction in the planning domain, such as in infrastructural development. Selected development strategies have also been employed and these will be discussed in detail. The paper concludes that future development between Hong Kong and south China will be a symbiotic one and that the implementation of a sustainable urban development strategy is vital to the continued growth of the region.     

Collaboration and competition in a children's health initiative coalition: a network analysis

Activating communities to achieve public health change and initiate policy reform usually requires collective action from many entities. This case study analyzes inter-organizational networks among members of a coalition created to expand health insurance coverage to uninsured children in a large metropolitan area. Six networks were measured: collaboration, competition, formal agreements, receive funding from, send funding to, and greater communication. The response rate was 65.8% (50 of the 76 active members). Positive network questions such as “who do you collaborate with” elicited many network choices whereas negative ones such as “who do you compete with” elicited few. The collaboration network had a core–periphery structure and analysis showed that a large network can be reduced to a small set of core organizations one-sixth the size of the whole. Centrality (out- and in-degree) was associated with perceived organizational function and perceived barriers to success. For example, organizations that received many choices as collaboration partners were more likely to perceive the coalition functioned well than those who received few choices. The study suggests that perceptions of organizational performance are associated with position in the network, central members are more likely to perceive the organization performs well than those on the periphery.     

Surviving on the inside: Reflections on being a woman and a feminist in a male academic institution

This article considers what it is like to be a woman on the inside: a white woman lecturer and tutor teaching social work students inside the white male bastion of the university. Universities are notoriously male-centred in their organisation, their teaching and their knowledge base; women working in universities have referred to themselves as ‘outsiders in the sacred grove’ (Aisenberg and Harrington, 1988). We might expect Departments of Social Work to be different to this, since social work has historically been a profession staffed by women, working with female clients (Brook and Davis, 1985). I will argue that patriarchal ideas and practices persist throughout higher educational institutions and that the impact of gender (as well as class, ethnicity and ‘race’, sexuality and disability) must be addressed at all levels within social work education.     

Women migrants in the global economy: a global overview (and regional perspectives)

ABSTRACT

Huge advances have been made in deepening and expanding our knowledge of gendered migration over the last decades in both theoretical and methodological terms. Empirically it is, however, still the case that North–South migration is at the basis of most theorisations, leaving the characteristics of South–South migration at the margins. In this paper we, therefore, shift the focus to intra- and trans-regional migration in a South–South context in exploring what this means for women migrants. While feminist scholars have highlighted care and the ways in which migration challenges social reproduction as an important issue, mainstream approaches continue to focus predominantly on the ‘productive’ lives of migrant workers. With migration theories still largely drawing on the experience of South–North migration, there continues to be relatively little understanding of South–South migration’s gender dynamics, despite the fact that many of the highly feminised, yet hyper-precarious, migration flows occur intra-regionally.     

Reflections on a meta-analysis: Crystallizing thinking about SCCT

This article provides my reflections and comments on the meta-analysis of situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) presented in this issue. The meta-analysis helps to crystallize strengths and weaknesses of SCCT and the research generated by the theory. No theory is perfect and every theory has limitations/boundaries. The meta-analysis helps to identify the boundaries for SCCT helping to understand when the theory works and when there are better options for informing crisis communication. By reflecting on the extant research, we can plot the direction for future research utilizing SCCT.     

Evaluability assessment: Reflections on the process

As a formal process, evaluability assessment is 10 years old. In the Cooperative Extension Service (CES), the process is 5 years old. Since 1984, evaluability assessments have been implemented in five states with six different major programs in an effort to define the process in a practical methodological sense and to encourage its adoption in CES. Implementation proceeded iteratively and after each study, procedures were analyzed, clarified, and, wherever possible, simplified to make the process more usable and more “operator robust.” The purpose of this article is to reflect on the process as it evolved in applications in CES. Underlying philosophy and methodological considerations are discussed. To put these in perspective, background information is provided on the evaluability assessment process and on the studies conducted in CES.     

Fragments from a Journal: Reflections on Celibacy and the Role of Women in the Church

This paper argues that priestly abuse is a byproduct of the dissociation of sexuality from spiritual life and religious practice, which developed as a male, authoritarian, ecclesial administrative system evolved within Christianity. The early Church “fathers' interpreted Biblical, Gospel, and Pauline texts through misogynist/antisex lenses that legitimized an all-male, celibate priesthood; the exclusion of women from positions of administrative and sacramental power; and a misogynous view of the sexual body of women. Using the work of feminist theologian/historians, the author deconstructs the origins of what became the Catholic theology of gender and sexuality and proposes the recovery of submerged Christian traditions that see the potential of human erotic love as a spiritual path.     

Taking it to scale: evaluating the scope and reach of a community-wide initiative on early childhood

In implementing broad community initiatives, the ability to assess the delivery of services is a distinct challenge. Yet, understanding both the magnitude and cross-usage of services by target populations is often a precursor to effective program evaluation, program improvement and additional program planning. This research examines the extent to which a comprehensive early childhood initiative successfully reached young children and their families in a large urban county. By linking birth records and administrative datasets at the level of the individual child, the study tracks the experiences of children in respect to engagement in program services and their receipt of public benefits. The study shows both the rapid growth in programs and the reach of the program elements to the majority of newborns in the target county after 5.5 years. The research highlights the challenges of effectively using individual-level data from a variety of sources for the purposes of documenting program receipt by participants.     

Working with a Couple After Violence: Reflections on a Differentiation-Based Approach

McGoldrick and Carter (2001) observe that interventions in a differentiation-based approach such as detriangling are often counterintuitive. In an attempt to understand the counterintuitive nature of a differentiation-based approach, I draw on Schnarch and others to reflect on the nature of paradox, integrity and differentiation. I discuss implications for work with a couple after violence, and I conclude that differentiation can be understood as a personal, social, or even master virtue. The paper moves backwards and forwards between a case example, and reflections on theory.