Retirement Planning Among Hispanics: In God’s Hands?

We conducted a qualitative study on retirement preparedness among middle-aged and older low-income Hispanics in Los Angeles. Data were derived from four focus groups conducted in the greater Los Angeles area. Findings demonstrate how behavioral and cultural factors—family experiences, religiosity, and denial of retirement—explain the lack of savings and preparedness for retirement. Findings also indicate that the majority of participants want to be economically independent and to keep working until they are unable to do so. Participants helped their parents financially but did not feel comfortable asking their own children for help. Instead, participants placed their survival in retirement “in God’s hands.”     

“Well,if you can't smile you should go home!” Experiences and reflective insights on providing outreach to young sex trade workers

This case study relates experiences and candid reflections of front-line staff in the STAND program (Street Trade Alternatives and New Directions) providing outreach to young sex trade workers in downtown Toronto. The authors describe how this project came to be and the lessons learned in setting it up and providing services to this vulnerable, very hard to reach but resilient population. Through a sharing of tales and narratives of outreach, the authors corroborate some of the reasons why there is much written on outreach but little specifically about reaching out to sex trade workers. The traditional responses and approaches in working with children and youth are also questioned in light of negotiating power, building relationships, and actively waiting for the client to lead the change process.     

Snippets and silences: Ethics and reflexivity in narratives of sistering

This paper considers two aspects of feminist orthodoxy regarding ethics and reflexivity during data analysis in qualitative research. These methodological issues surfaced in an exploratory study of how discourses of sistering socially construct and produce feminine subjectivity. Research was carried out with 37 women aged between 6 and 50 from different class and ethnic backgrounds living in the UK. Auto/biographical work in sociology influenced the design of the qualitative methods and the use of a grounded theory and case study approach to the analysis of the interview narratives. The discussion of methodological dilemmas-how to analyse multiple perspectives of relationships with varying degrees of disclosure among participants-is located within both feminist standpoint and poststructuralist theory. A case is made for guaranteeing anonymity rather than confidentiality, and offering selective reciprocity rather than an equal exchange between researcher and participants. The challenge of working with feminist reflexivity is considered through the notion of bounded privacy and a silenced 'I'.     

Rural social work The perceptions and experiences of five remote practitioners

Abstract

Living and working as a remote, rural social worker is a challenging experience. This qualitative study explores the experiences of five longer-term social workers in rural Western Australia. It provides a glimpse of their world including initial experiences, factors which support long-term rural practice, the demands and skills needed, the difficulties working in a bureaucracy and the positive aspects of rural practice. Tentative conclusions indicate that rural practice is distinct, due to the demands of living and working in the same community. Moreover, skills must be applied in the context of few secondary referral points or after hours services, and huge distances. The difficulty of maintaining professional identity and feelings of personal isolation are significant, but are compensated for by families who are settled and reluctant to leave, These findings can be used to inform social work education and improve retention of workers and quality of rural practice.     

Where The Trans Men and Enbies At?: Cissexism,Sexual Threat,and the Study of Sex Work

In this article, I examine the existing research on transgender sex workers and explore how cissexism and sexism overlap and shape this work. Overall, researchers assume that all trans sex workers are women, and all male sex workers are assumed to be cisgender. Transmasculine and other gender non‐conforming sex workers are absent from studies of sex work. Researchers in public health and criminology dominate the literature and this research is limited because it focuses only on trans women and because it focuses primarily on disease and trauma, and almost exclusively on HIV. The literature I examined treats transgender women as a public health “problem” to be solved, rather than addressing their experiences and needs as workers and as people in our society. I argue that in order to have useful applied and policy implications aimed at harm reduction, researchers must use a sociological lens to document what structural conditions push and pull people of various genders into sex markets in the first place. Finally, I advocate for the use of queer, intersectional, and transnational frameworks in future lines of inquiries as a way to push the sociological and public health literature on sex work forward in a way that will benefit all sex workers, their advocates, and service providers.     

Working the Project: Research Proposals and Everyday Practices for Emerging Feminist Researchers

Seeking to support graduate students in engaging in feminist sociological research, we provide guidance on “working the project”—working collaboratively and creatively to foster compassion and solidarity as we bring diverse research projects to fruition. We offer reflections on our everyday experiences and struggles as emerging feminist researchers, including with writing research proposals. We also include four condensed research proposals ‐ on the social organization of care work, sex work, criminal justice, and abortion care ‐ to support fellow students in the process. Spurring collaborative, fun and inclusive ways of working, we speak to feminist scholar‐activists who may require additional support in navigating the social relations of academe, while contributing to collective projects of investigating and remaking the social organization of everyday life.     

Female Sex Trade Workers,Condoms, and the Public-Private Divide

Abstract

This qualitative study explored the ways in which social relations within the public (work) as opposed to the private (home) contexts shape variable condom use among female sex trade workers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 68 female sex workers working in various settings in an urban center in Eastern Canada. The findings suggest that work-related social relations, and the meanings associated with condoms at work, create a strong confidence in condom use. Within the private setting, such confidence was also evident but most women reported either not using condoms or only using “sometimes.” Nevertheless, many women do engage in risk management within the private setting, and take active steps to decrease their risks of Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV)/Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).     

Empowering Rural Sociology: Exploring and Linking Alternative Paradigms in Theory and Methodology1

Abstract Theoretical and methodological approaches to rural social change are explored, especially those that give visibility to the range of heterogeneous experiences and perspectives that often are overlooked or ignored. Theoretical developments in postmodern, narrative, and feminist theory are described as are the methodological approaches they imply. Examples of research on rural social change that attempt to integrate theory and methods in ways that respect the complicated, processual nature of social life are discussed. They provide concrete illustrations of how alternative approaches can be fruitfully applied to some of the issues and problems rural sociologists typically study.     

Rethinking Girls “At-Risk”

Abstract

This conceptual article critically analyzes influential theoretical frameworks concerning adolescent female development, including psychosocial identity stage theory, person-in-environment theory, and feminist psychology. Based on the strengths and limitations of these approaches, the author introduces social workers to an emerging framework that addresses the gender, race, and class intersections that contextualize adolescent girls' developmental experiences. This perspective also discusses young women's capacity to resist norms and stereotypes in their search for an authentic identity. This innovative theory complements a strengths-based approach to social work and can be used to guide research andpractice with this population.     

Over 1000 Aluminium Cans for Forty Dollars: The Provisioning Contributions of Older Children from the Perspectives of Welfare‐Reliant Lone Mothers

In this article, as a child and family mental health therapist, I connect the feminist concept of ‘provisioning’ and the experiences of ‘young carers’ to critically examine the family care contributions made by older children living in poverty. I present the findings of a qualitative study consisting of two focus groups in which ten (n = 10) welfare‐reliant lone mothers living in Toronto, Canada described the nature and significance of the contributions made by their older children (11–17 years old) to help their families ‘make ends meet’. Using grounded theory, two main categories emerged: (1) the nature of the provisioning by older children, and (2) the significance of the contributions. The implications of the findings suggest that mental health approaches with older children living in poverty inappropriately misrepresent and pathologise their emotional distress and family contributions.     

Are baby boomer women redefining retirement?

As the baby boomers enter later life, unprecedented numbers of women are retiring. The first generation of women to encounter retirement since its institutionalisation as an expected male life course transition in the mid‐20th century, these women are leaving the labour force at a time when the meanings associated with “retirement” are changing. Longer life expectancy, improved health outcomes, and transformations in work driven by globalisation have produced greater diversity in when, why, and how people exit the labour force. Many boomer women are disadvantaged in later life by their histories of discontinuous employment and care‐giving. Consequently, we argue, opportunities to engage in “retirement” projects of their own choosing are unequal across this population. This essay reviews qualitative studies in sociology that examine boomer women's experiences of retirement and is organised in terms of the three main approaches that inform this under‐studied field: critical/feminist gerontology, identity theory, and life course approaches. Based on our review, we posit the need for socially inclusive research, beyond the prevailing emphasis on White, middle‐class professional women; more studies examining the impact of earlier life course transitions on women's later years; and attention to the effects of “successful ageing” discourses on women's lived experiences.     

Feminist social theory needs time. Reflections on the relation between feminist thought,social theory and time as an important parameter in social analysis1

This paper explores the relation between feminist concerns, social theory and the multiple time aspects of social life. It is suggested that while feminist approaches have been located in classical political philosophy, the same imposed classification has not occurred with respect to social theory perspectives. Rather than seeing this as an academic gap that needs filling, it was taken as an opportunity to take note of the wide variety of feminist approaches to methodological and theoretical issues and to relate these to concerns arising from a focus on the time, temporality, and timing of social life. It is argued that a feminist social theory, as an understanding of the social world through the eyes of women, is not only complemented by such a focus on time but dependent on it for an opportunity to transcend the pervasive vision of the ‘founding fathers’.     

Built community: architecture,community, and participation in a permanent supportive housing project

Housing and the social processes that create it are an important part of a better world. The permanent supportive housing movement holds that housing, in addition to a variety of human services, is the most dignified and effective way to help people without homes. But the design of such initiatives matters. This community-based, qualitative research project investigates the connection between space, participation, and community. It draws on the experiences of residents of an innovative housing organization on Skid Row in Los Angeles, California. Residents of the program find community space to be both promising and contested. Their experiences also reveal the way that institutional space can be trauma-informed and impact their overall wellbeing and opportunities for interacting with others. However, their feelings of being a part of the community and their involvement in activities are not always connected, as identity and social context can cause residents to identify or dis-identify with their community despite how involved or uninvolved they are. Intentionally designed community spaces in permanent supportive housing units can respond to trauma and set the stage for interaction, but they cannot solve all problems.     

Outdoor brothel culture: the un/making of a transsexual stroll in Vancouver's West End, 1975–1984

In the mid-1970s, following a series of police raids on prostitution inside downtown nightclubs, a community of approximately 200 sex workers moved into Vancouver's West End neighborhood, where a small stroll had operated since the early 1970s. This paper examines the contributions made by three male-to-female (MTF) transsexuals of color to the culture of on-street prostitution in the West End. The trans women's stories address themes of fashion, working conditions, money, community formation, violence, and resistance to well-organized anti-prostitution forces. These recollections enable me to bridge and enrich trans history and prostitution history – two fields of inquiry that have under-represented the participation of trans women in the sex industry across the urban West. Acutely familiar with the hazards inherent in a criminalized, stigmatized trade, trans sex workers in the West End manufactured efficacious strategies of harm reduction, income generation, safety planning, and community building. Eschewing the label of “victim”, they leveraged their physical size and style, charisma, contempt towards pimps, earning capacity, and seniority as the first workers on the stroll to assume leadership within the broader constituency of “hookers on Davie Street”. I discover that their short-lived outdoor brothel culture offered only a temporary bulwark against the inevitability of eviction via legal injunction in July 1984, and the subsequent rise in lethal violence against all prostitutes in Vancouver, including MTF transsexuals.     

Intersectionality and Social Work: Omissions of Race,Class, and Sexuality in Graduate School Education

In 2008 EPAS Standards on Engaging Diversity and Difference in Practice (2.1.4) added intersectionality (a theory developed by feminist of color) as one aspect to understand diversity, difference, and power in social work curriculum. We consider how intersectionality is omitted in graduate student learning even when class assignments center discussions and theorizations on power. This qualitative study explores student narratives and corresponding metaphorical drawings on power within an assignment charting their role as social workers. The research emerges from data where authors noted omissions of race, class, and sexuality in discussions on professional power. This inquiry is guided by critical feminisms. Constant comparative methods were used in this study and two themes emerged: policing resources and a pretense of harmlessness.     

Family and Culture,and the Samoan Youth

This qualitative study examines the Samoan family and culture as possible sources of risk and/or protection for delinquency among Samoan youth. Study participants included Samoan American youth and parents living in one U.S. state. Data were collected via individual interviews. Results indicate that family practices, dynamics, and socioeconomic status; cultural factors such as Samoan customs and traditions (Fa'aSamoa); and structural factors such as oppression and discrimination may serve as sources of risk and/or protection for delinquency among these Samoan youth. A theory is proposed based on familial, cultural, and structural factors related to delinquency among Samoan youth. Implications for future research, policy, and practice specifically focusing on the cultural aspects of the lived experiences of Samoan youth and their families living in the United States are discussed.     

Child Sexual Abuse Workers’ Emotional Experiences of Working Therapeutically in the Western Cape, South Africa

South African child sexual abuse workers active in low-income communities bear witness to stories of sexual and physical abuse, neglect, pervasive deprivation, and violence. North American, British, and European workers’ emotional experiences have been captured in the literature, and a gap remains to be filled by those of their South African colleagues. This research aims to focus on the emotional experiences of social workers who engage therapeutically with sexually abused children in the Helderberg basin of the Western Cape, and resonate in some way with readers working in situations of poverty and trauma in other parts of the world. This study employed an explorative inductive research method, and followed a critical realist and contextual constructionist approach. Multiple-case study data collection took place by means of semi-structured interviews with social workers who engage therapeutically with sexually abused children. Data were examined by means of thematic analysis, and psychoanalytic theory was employed to analyse defences that surfaced during interviews. There were similarities in emotional experiences between South African participants and their abovementioned counterparts. The research also identified salient features of working with child sexual abuse in South Africa. The emotional experiences of doing such work, coupled with participants’ ways of managing sexually abused children’s material, gave rise to possible vicarious traumatisation symptoms and allowed for a psychoanalytic understanding to be put forward. The research also reports on useful measures that might enable individuals to continue interventions. To enable ongoing effective therapeutic engagement, social workers should have access to opportunities for acknowledging countertransferences and processing dynamic material defended against. The research contributes to knowledge of working in South Africa by exploring the emotional experiences of those who help sexually abused children daily, and by investigating the psychological impact prolonged therapeutic engagement has on workers active in Western Cape low-income communities.     

Documenting the lived experiences of young adult cochlear implant users: ‘feeling’ sound,fluidity and blurring boundaries

This article draws on qualitative research that explored the lived experiences of 16 young adult cochlear implant users. The original study focused on the emerging generation of young adult implant users and presented their stories as a means of furthering research into the experiences of living with, and using, implant technology as part of everyday life. This article will explore the process of being ‘switched on’, the adaptation to the new version of sound, and the users’ perceptions of the positive and negative aspects of living with their technology. The findings indicate that activating the implant technology can produce a range of sounds that are both heard and felt by the user. Furthermore, the process of learning to live with the technology highlights the fluidity of the cochlear implant experience and the blurring of boundaries between the (deaf) body and its technology.     

The physical, mental, and social health status of older Chinese: a cross-national study

This article reports data on 16 indicators of the physical, mental, and social health status of older Chinese living in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Los Angeles. Both the frequency distributions of these indicators and their factor structures are different among the three cities. These differences may have implications for the planning of public health services. Either they are the result of differences in the way in which people in each of these cities think about illness or they are the result of differential experiences with disease. Although these data cannot resolve this issue, both the frequency distributions and the severity ratings for nine chronic diseases also differed markedly among the three cities.