A conversation with Susan Stryker

This article does not have an abstract     

Children's conversation with adults

SUMMARY. nderstanding inter-personal communication is no easy task and seems particularly uncertain when adults are talking to children. The authors set out to identify how children perceive what adults say to them by seeking to understand the nature of children's knowledge about adults in general. A study of 300 children, aged 4–14 was carried out to ascertain the types of response children gave at different ages to a standard set of questions in conversation. The authors conclude that as children grow older they move from anecdotal, through physical and social, to psychological responses. They conclude this greater understanding of the way children, in particular adolescents, perceive adults could have a very positive effect on professional relationships with young people     

Playing politics with policy: A conversation with Steven J. Pfohl

In this conversation, Stephen J. Pfohl and Maureen E. Kelleher discuss Pfohl’s experience as the chair of the Massachusetts Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee. During Pfohl’s tenure, the committee looked at the highly visible and politicized problem of violent teenagers. Pfohl reflects on the experience of chairing a committee made up of diverse representatives, leading them through a policy study process, and delivering a report with policy recommendations to the governor. He also shares insights into the political aspects of policy making. She has consulted with state agencies on various children’s policy issues, and her most recent work on institutional abuse appears inChild Welfare.     

A Journal of Family Social Work conversation with Monica McGoldrick,LCSW

Monica McGoldrick and Judith Siegel converse about Monica’s decision to become a social worker, her interest in families, key people who influenced her along the way, and the inspiration for her work on ethnicity in family therapy.     

A conversation on madness: Foucault and Ripa

Written as a fictitious dialogue between two of this generation’s most prolific social theorists, this unique analysis explores the similarities and divergences of Michel Foucault’s and Yannick Ripa’s scholarship on madness. During an imagined meeting at a local café, a spirited dialogue emerges addressing mutual agreement and unwavering criticism of each author’s perspective of how madness was constructed and managed throughout the classical and Victorian eras. Ripa’s primary motive is to challenge Foucault for ignoring the feminine critique within his over-arching theories of social and patriarchal systems of control. On the other hand, Foucault’s vested interest is to explore Ripa’s narrowed historical scope that he feels was essentially built upon his own scholarship without acknowledgement. Drawing upon a comparative study of Foucault’s History of Madness and Ripa’s Women and Madness, the two theorists engage in a revealing conversation about aspects of political economy, shifting roles of religious ideology, gender effects, the social construction of insanity, and the historical methods of incarceration.     

Review of R. A. Harris’ Linguistics Wars

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior -     

The development of friendship in childhood: A clinical conversation

Our friendships are a way to think about meaning in life. Friendships are like protein, a psychological essential for growth and development. When we see two three-year-olds playing together at the park running, holding hands, laughing, we cannot help but be filled with a sense of joy and warmth We can view making friendships as a developmental process in itself. In this discussion, I will explore the use of toys as a means of making friends. I will also explore the psychological meaning of toys and how they are a developmental precursor to friendship. Two clinical examples will be given in which friendship was the predominant theme in the therapy.The author would like to thank the late Gary Davis for his enthusiasm and friendship. Also: Mary Louise Denardo, Emily Halstead and Marilyn Silin.Lynn Borenstein MSW is on the faculty of the Institute for Clinical Social Work, and the faculty of the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Training Program, Institute for Psychoanalysis.     

Homology and isomorphism: Bourdieu in conversation with New Institutionalism

Bourdieusian Field Theory (BFT) provided decisive inspiration for the early conceptual formulation of New Institutionalism (NI). This paper attempts to reinvigorate the stalled intellectual dialogue between NI and BFT by comparing NI's concept of isomorphism with BFT's notion of homology. I argue that Bourdieu's understanding of domination‐oriented social action, transposable habitus, and a non‐linear causality, embodied in his neglected concept of homology, provides an alternative theorization of field‐level convergence to New Institutionalism's central idea of institutional isomorphism. To showcase how BFT can be useful for organizational research, I postulate a habitus‐informed and field‐conditioned theory of transference to enrich NI's spin‐off thesis of ‘diffusion’. I propose that while NI can benefit from BFT's potential of bringing social structure back into organizational research, BFT can enrich its social analysis by borrowing from NI's elaboration of the symbolic system of organizations.     

Helen Keller: rethinking the problematic icon

More than 30 years after her death, Helen Keller is still known internationally as the little deaf blind girl, the 'miracle child' who triumphed over adversity. However, behind the image, hidden from the public gaze, was a flesh-and-blood woman, writer and radical activist, suffragette and Socialist. She was a woman who lived to old age, yet is fixed in the public imagination as an eternal child. This paper charts the creation of Keller's popular image and enduring iconic status, analysing their purpose and the implications they hold for us as disabled people. It then examines the truth of her life, revealing how contemporary are the issues which determined it. Finally, it explores the value of retelling her biography and the relevance it holds in the building of disability culture.