Social network research and human subjects protection: Towards more effective infectious disease control

The issue of human subject protection in relation to social network research on the spread and control of human pathogens is considered. As this area derives most of its concepts and methods from social network analysis more generally, the present discussion has wider relevance. One problem is that some Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) have assumed that if a participant (who gave informed consent) is to be asked to name network associates these too — automatically — would be human subjects from whom informed consent also must be obtained. Invariably, if this occurs proposed research — whatever its funding and potential contributions might be — is blocked. A conservative approach is taken here. The Common Rule is assumed to provide relevant guidance, the responsibility of IRBs is to make decisions based on the Common Rule, and in consequence the burden is on those proposing social network research to design — and defend — their planned work with this in mind. At the same time, it is argued that it is important not to stifle beneficial research by adding to one inherently conservative review process (of grant proposals) another (of IRBs) so that work is prevented simply because it is research at the frontiers rather than ‘safe’ research.     

Come one, come all

Aging is a complex process that involves the gradual functional decline of many different tissues and cells. Gene expression microarray analysis provides a comprehensive view of the gene expression signature associated with age and is particularly valuable for understanding the molecular mechanisms that contribute to the aging process. However, because of the stochastic nature of the aging process, animals of the same chronological age often manifest great physiological differences. Therefore, profiling the gene expression pattern of a large population of aging animals risks either exaggerating or masking the changes in gene expression that correspond to physiological aging. In a recent paper, Golden and Melov surveyed the gene expression profiles of individual aging Caenorhabditis elegans, hoping to circumvent the problem of variability among worms of the same chronological age. This initial analysis of age-dependent gene expression in individual aging worms is an important step toward deciphering the molecular basis of physiological aging.     

Using yeast to discover the fountain of youth

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has long served as a model organism for the study of basic cellular processes. Its short generation time, well-established molecular genetics, and fully sequenced genome have made this organism a favorite of researchers in diverse fields. Much of the information obtained has been shown to apply to higher eukaryotes, including humans. Recently, researchers have begun using yeast to tackle one of the outstanding questions in science: How and why do organisms age? The identification of individual genes in yeast that can affect the aging process itself has elevated this single-celled fungus to full contender status in the aging field. In this Perspective, we present two fundamentally different measures of aging in yeast: replicative life-span and stationary phase survival (chronological life-span). We describe the benefits and limitations of each and present models that attempt to explain these "aging" phenomena. Finally, we present compelling evidence that the use of yeast as a model system will ultimately prove beneficial to the study of human aging.     

Telomeres and human aging: facts and fibs

Can telomere dynamics, defined by telomere length and attrition rate, provide information about the biology of human aging above and beyond that provided by chronological age? Accruing data suggest that it can. White blood cells (WBCs) have been used as the primary model in attempts to decipher links between aging, aging-related disorders, and telomere dynamics in humans. The WBC model may be appropriate in clinical settings, provided that we fully appreciate its drawbacks and limitations. On the basis of WBC telomere data, it is evident that age-adjusted telomere length is highly variable, highly heritable, longer in women than men, and shorter in people who harbor a host of age-related disorders, whose common denominators may prove to be increased oxidative stress and inflammation. It appears that shorter age-adjusted WBC telomere length augurs a greater risk of morbidity and premature mortality in the elderly. However, it is unsettled whether human telomere dynamics is only a proxy for fundamental mechanisms that govern the course of aging or a key determinant in its progression.     

Medicalizing the optimal: Anti-aging medicine and the quandary of intervention

The emergence of anti-aging medicine over the past two decades has posed tremendous challenges for traditional categories that define the relationship between aging and biomedicine. The frameworks of nature and disease have been critical in marking how biomedicine can and should intervene. Anti-aging advocates posit that because aging is a predictable, biological universal, it is natural and can therefore be understandable. Moreover, proponents accept and perpetuate the pervasive construction that aging is a painful decline. Here, its undesirability coupled with its knowability render the process of aging ameliorable. Thus, anti-aging advocates argue that aging is natural, not a disease, but should nonetheless serve as a site of intervention. Situating the optimization of the aging process as their primary goal, many anti-aging advocates assert that it is more emblematic of human nature to liberate the body from its perceived biological constraints than it is natural to age.     

Aging research grows up

Long viewed as an insoluble enigma, aging is shedding its cloak of mystery as scientists start to understand why and how we age. Many studies support the theoretical argument that aging occurs because natural selection weakens with age, leaving us vulnerable to harmful, late-acting genes. As for what causes aging, scientists have narrowed the pack of candidates to a handful, including free radicals and reactions between glucose and proteins. In recent decades, many mechanisms for lengthening life in animals have come to light. By extending this research, scientists may be closing in on ways to lengthen the human life-span.     

Make Poverty History: Political Communication in Action

The number of groups advocating on behalf of older people, their activities, and their influence suggest that a transnational advocacy network around aging is emerging, but there have been no attempts to study how dense this network is, nor how power is distributed within it. Through collective action frame analysis, this article explores whether organizations advocating on behalf of older people represent the variety of global aging experiences in both developed and less-developed contexts. The analysis relies on four types of evidence: documentary, survey, interview, and observation. Advocacy groups use a number of diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational frames. The findings support arguments in the literature that diverse collective action frames can be more of an asset than a liability because they increase the network's reach and resonance with multiple stakeholders. Although the aging advocacy network is not very dense, it is becoming denser because of the rise of the human rights master frame and the rally for a UN Convention on the Rights of Older People. The frame empowers the network to use its diversity to its advantage, since individual organizations can work for whatever piece of the human rights frame matches best with their organization's mandate. However, there are still major power imbalances within the network. While it is growing more inclusive of voices from less developed countries, global civil society remains a space for organizations with resources, which those organizations based in poorer countries simply do not have.     

Process of precocious functional aging in workers of laundries

The World Health Organization (WHO), as well as researchers of the whole world, it has been demonstrating concern with the subject of the aging related to the work and it recognizes that modifications in the several systems of the human body take to the gradual decrease in the effectiveness of each one of them, because the aging caused by the work advances apprenticeships of the cycle of the man's life, not respecting the natural state of that process. In this sense, it was aimed at with this research to investigate the relative aspects to the capacity for the work and to the workers' with responsibility to realize the work in the laundries service, verifying if they present signs of precocious functional aging.     

Feeling the Hands of Time: Intersections of Time and Emotion

While the fields of the sociology of time and the sociology of emotion have grown exponentially, missing from the literature is explicit theorizing on the intersections of emotion and time. In this review article, we begin by examining literature that explores both how time (e.g. temporal control, perceived amount) influences emotional responses and how emotions (e.g. emotional intensity, valence) impact perceptions of time. Although such research occurs in a variety of disciplines, much of it fails to look at individuals' active manipulation of time and emotion to produce desired experiences. After discussing the established concepts of emotion work (Hochschild 1979) and time work (Flaherty 2003), we illustrate how two newer concepts – “temporal emotion work” (Lois 2010, 2012) and “emoting time” (Mullaney and Shope 2012) – serve as starting points for thinking about how individuals actively use time in emotion work and emotions in time work. Although much of the thinking to date occurs within the scholarly literature on work and family, we call for more intentional and systematic theorizing about the relationship between time and emotion.     

The search for biomarkers of aging: next stop INK4a/ARF locus

Although several biomarkers of aging have been described in the literature, it is only recently that gerontologists have started to search for molecular biomarkers of aging. A gene or a set of genes that are expressed in a wide range of tissues and exhibit an age-dependent, easily quantifiable increase in their expression represent a possible molecular biomarker of aging. Because the physiology of an organism is profoundly affected by the pattern of gene expression, it is hoped that molecular biomarkers of aging will more accurately predict the physiological age of an organism than the chronological age. A recent report from Sharpless's laboratory examines the possibility that the tumor suppressors p16 and ARF (encoded by the INK4a/ARF locus) represent molecular biomarkers of aging in rodent models.     

Practicing Birchism: The Assumption and Limits of Idiocultural Coherence in Framing Theory

Social movement theory and research over the past twenty years have utilized the concepts incorporated under the rubric of Framing Theory in order to draw attention to the cultural ‘meaning work’ within a social movement or social movement organization. Underlying Framing Theory is an assumption of what I term idiocultural coherence – that for a movement organization to be successful, its members must come to agree cognitively with its cultural understandings and identify collectively with it. Drawing on an example of the John Birch Society, a very successful conspiratorial, anti-communist organization, I show how people may join a social movement organization not because they necessarily or fully agree with its collective action frames but because it provides an opportunity to act collectively and publicly perform a collective identity. I argue that a narrow focus on idiocultural processes obfuscates important cultural processes ‘outside’ of a movement organization that have an impact on how and why people join an organization and maintain membership.     

Temporalities of Victimhood: Time in the Study of Postconflict Societies

Researchers in peace and conflict studies have rarely explicitly engaged with time and temporality. This article develops a temporal analysis of victimhood in a mature posttransition society, drawing on qualitative research with victims/survivors of gross human rights violations in South Africa. Two decades after the democratic transition, there is a prevalent understanding that it is finally time for victims to “move on.” In contrast to the supposed linear temporality of peace processes, however, the consequences of past violence continue to impact on interviewees’ lives and are exacerbated by contemporary experiences of victimization. I identify several areas of temporal conflicts that characterize postconflict societies: victimhood as temporary/victimhood as continuous; the pace of national reconciliation/the time(s) of individual healing; and the speed of a neoliberal economy/the pace of social transformation. I examine temporal hierarchies that reflect broader socioeconomic marginalization, such as being made to wait for compensation and social pressures of overcoming the past. This temporal analysis of victimhood thus not only highlights the mismatch between victims’ needs and political and cultural expectations of closure, but it also draws attention to the temporality of transitional processes and programs at different social and institutional levels.     

The development of generic concepts in qualitative research through cumulative application

Because of their close contact with the actual flow of human group life, qualitative research projects frequently have as a bonus the development of insightful concepts of generic quality that catch some essence of social interaction and/or structural conditions. Yet little attention has been paid to the way these concepts are modified and strengthenedover a series of projects. The lack of regard for this methodological issue may lead to the false impression that qualitative research is not cumulative. In this paper, I urge qualitative sociologists to be aware of cumulative concept development as a major methodological tool, and to demonstrate how concepts derived from one research project are extended and modified in subsequent projects. Additionally, I show how this approach aids in both illuminating aspects of a given research context, while at the same time drawing attention to hitherto unnoted relationships among concepts. In this way, more systematic strategies for developing generic concepts and cumulative understanding of human group life through qualitative research is possible.An earlier version of this paper was presented at The Conference on Qualitative Research: An Ethnographic/Interactionist Perspective, University of Waterloo, Ontario Canada, May 15–17, 1985. I am grateful to Shulamit Reinharz, Ruth Wallace, Stanley Udy, Raymond Hall, and three anonymous reviewers for their suggestions.     

From personhood to citizenship: Broadening the lens for dementia practice and research

Personhood has provided a lens for conceptualising dementia practice and research for over ten years. It has afforded the rationale and language for improving care and for raising consciousness about the status of people with dementia, as people, intrinsically worthy of respect. However, because personhood is essentially an apolitical concept concerned with psychosocial issues it may be too limiting. Citizenship provides another possible lens. Citizenship is used in cognate disciplines to promote the status of discriminated groups of people still further, to that of a person with power entitled to the same from life as everyone else. However, as citizenship tends to assume the self-cognizance to exercise rights and responsibilities, it may not be as appropriate for people with severe dementia. Both concepts are problematic then, taking too narrow a view of the human experience. For this field to develop over the next ten years it clearly needs a wider lens that is both inclusive of personhood and citizenship, but which also recognizes the complexities of human experience. This article reviews the relevance of personhood and citizenship for dementia practice and research, and argues for a broader lens that incorporates citizenship and sociological ideas about agency and structure.     

From genes to societies

Research on model organisms has substantially advanced our understanding of aging. However, these studies collectively lack any examination of the element of sociality, an important feature of human biology. Social insects present a number of unique possibilities for investigating social influences on aging and potentially detecting new mechanisms for extremely prolonged, healthy life spans that have evolved naturally. Social evolution has led to life spans in reproductive females that are much longer (up to over 100-fold) than those of males or of nonreproductive worker castes. These differences are particularly dramatic because they are due to environmental influences, as all individuals develop from the same genomes. Social insect colonies consist of semi-autonomous individuals, and the relationship between the colony and the individual creates many interesting predictions in the light of the common theories of aging. Furthermore, the variety of lifestyles of social insects creates the potential for crucial comparative analyses across distinct social systems.     

Space,time, and self: Rethinking aging in the contexts of immigration and transnationalism

Critical gerontology views aging as a social construction that reflects the intersections of micro-processes with the macro-level forces of individual aging experiences. In the contexts of immigration and transnationalism, however, the macro-structural conditions, dynamics and experiences of aging have become further diversified and complicated. The dearth of empirical and explanatory knowledge in this area has inhibited us from comprehending aging in a changing world. Drawing on data from a study of Chinese grandparents' experiences of transnational caregiving in Canada, this article examines the impacts of such experiences on three interconnected dimensions – spatial, temporal and cognitive – of aging. Although the practice of transnational caregiving allows skilled immigrant families to mobilize care resources outside Canada, it has not only ruptured the traditional trajectories of aging for their elderly parents, but also complicated the inequalities that they have to bear on individual, familial and transnational levels. I argue that the critical examination of aging in the context of transnational caregiving helps us take into consideration those dimensions (such as place, space, time, and knowledge) that are changed by immigration processes, and rethink aging from a broader perspective that links seniors' experiences with their relationship with their adult immigrant children's families and macro-structures outside national borders.     

THE DURABILITY OF HUMAN CAPITAL: SOME NEW EVIDENCE

This paper analyzes the effect of chronological aging, experience, job search, change of job and/or employer, and formal training on the wage growth of a sample of young men. Following the human capital literature, wage growth directly corresponds to human capital and the analysis allows for the assessment of the durability or rate of depreciation of human capital if further investments are not made. The findings suggest that human capital is not very durable, contrary to some previous estimates given in the literature.     

MYTHIC FACTS AND HERBERT BLUMER'S WORK ON RACE RELATIONS: A Comment on Esposito and Murphy's Article

Luigi Esposito and John Murphy (1999) have argued that research using Blumer's group position theory of race relations using statistical analysis of survey data research actually undermines Blumer's theory of race relations by ignoring its definitional and dynamic emphases, as well as its emphasis on human agency. Furthermore, they argue that surveys and other quantitative data are directly antithetical to Blumer's perspective and symbolic interaction in general, which instead supposedly espouse nongeneralizing, idiographic, interpretive methods, such as "sympathetic introspection.' This commentary focuses on these latter points of their argument. I think Esposito and Murphy present questionable interpretations of Blumer's view of scientific concepts, of his methodological position, and symbolic interactionism. I first discuss Esposito and Murphy's depiction of Blumer's perspective as being "non-generalizing' with a focus on the sensitizing-definitive continuum of concepts. Second, I address the question of whether Blumer, and symbolic interactionism in general, is antiquantitative. I conclude by noting the importance of this debate for understanding race relations as well as the present and future place of symbolic interactionism in sociology.     

Aging-related temporal constraints to stability and instability in postural control

In this study, we review the evidence that older adults tend to have both a shorter time to lose stability in the maintenance of standing posture and the functionally related but inverse problem of needing more time to reacquire stability in transitioning to a postural state. These age-related time limitations to processes of stability are hypothesized to enhance the probability of falling with aging and the problems that can occur in the transition between activities, such as sitting to standing and standing to walking. The potential role of fitness and health variables in mediating the temporal constraints on the acquisition and loss of postural stability in aging is discussed.