Chiari Type I Malformations in Young Adults: Implications for the College Health Practitioner

Abstract

The authors describe 2 cases of Chiari type I malformation (CM-I) in students presenting to a college health center within a 6-month period. A review of CM-I, including epidemiology, typical presentation, evaluation, and management, is followed by a discussion of the clinical and functional implications of the disorder in an emerging adult population.     

From critical sociology to public intellectual: Pierre Bourdieu and politics

By the late 1990s, Pierre Bourdieu had become the primary public intellectual of major social scientific status at the head of the anti-globalization movement that emerged in France and in other Western European countries. This article discusses how Bourdieu became a leading public intellectual, a role that seems to contrast with his early years as a professional sociologist. It explores what seemed to change in Bourdieu’s activities and outlook as sociologist and what seems to have remained constant. It identifies several institutional conditions that seemed necessary for Bourdieu to be able to play the kind of public intellectual role he did in his later years. Bourdieu’s movement from a peripheral position to a central location in the French intellectual field, the changing character of the field itself, the growing influence of the mass media in French political and cultural life, the failures of the French Socialists in power, a cultural legacy of leading critical intellectuals in France, a unifying national issue of globalization, and the political conjuncture in 1995 all intersected in ways that opened a path for Bourdieu to choose new and more frequent forms of political action. His responses to that combination of factors at different moments reveal both a striking continuity in desire to preserve the autonomy of intellectual life and a change in view and strategy on how best to do that. The article concludes with a brief evaluation of Bourdieu’s public intellectual role.     

Social work in the development of institutional care for older people in Slovenia

Social work in homes for older people in Slovenia has a special role since we have extremely institutionally-oriented care for older people. Characteristic of the development of Slovenian homes for older people is a shift in the dynamics of the orientation of the homes from a medical to a social one. Different factors influenced the shift towards a social orientation, i.e. the policy of establishing homes, the influence of sociogerontological principles, the development of social work and, recently, by their engagement with residents with dementia. In socially-oriented homes a different model of social work is used than in medically-oriented ones. The difference lies in social work methods as well as in the roles of the social worker in different areas of work with the residents, relatives and staff. By defining a model of social work in a socially-oriented home, a special field of social work with older people in the field of institutional care in Slovenia has been developed.     

The Struggle for the Soul of Social Work in England

There is a debate or struggle for the nature and future of social work in England. This tension is between a narrow or limited type of practice and a broader and emancipatory social work, grounded in the International Federation of Social Work and the wider conception of the profession in other European states. The limited model of social work seems to provide a dominant paradigm, which may result in the loss of a more visionary and humane social work. This is a qualitative study of an undergraduate social work programme in England. There were 48 participants, comprised of academics, students, service users and practice educators. Interviews and focus groups were used and a thematic analysis was undertaken. The key finding of this study is that the paradigm of state or statutory social work in England threatens to replace a broad conception of social work as understood in such definitions as the International Federation of Social Work and social work in other European states.     

The Impact of the Return of Religion on Theoretical Approaches to Democracy and Governance in the Social and Political Sciences

The survey article analyses the impact of the return of religion on theoretical approaches to democracy and governance in the social and political sciences and spells out the normative and practical implications of a post-secular research programme on politics and religion. Reviewing the recent theoretical literature in the field, the author argues that there is a post-secular revision underway in the social and political sciences. This revision leads to a re-conceptualization of key assumptions about religion in sociology and political sciences: on the grounds of a historical and sociological criticism of the secularization thesis, secularity as condition and secularism as ideology acquire analytical significance. In a second step and drawing chiefly on works of Habermas, Rawls, Bader and Shachar, the author proposes that as a consequence of this re-conceptualization, the relationship between politics and religion in democratic theory is best interpreted in terms of a post-secular, deliberative public sphere in which religion has its place and that an appropriate research programme on religion and politics might consist in a normatively informed comparative governance approach to religion.     

Evaluation in South Africa: An introduction

This article provides a brief background to the articles in this edition on evaluation in South Africa. The overall background is self-evident: South Africa is a country which has undergone a political revolution, with a government of national unity in place. The formulation and implementation of new policies, and the programs which form part of them, will be an important part of South African politics in the years to come.These articles also appear against the more immediate background of trying to place evaluation on a surer footing in this country. In this introduction the efforts of a group of South African evaluators to position themselves and their activities in such a way as to make evaluation an accepted part of the organizational landscape, and to play a useful role in a future South Africa, are described as well.     

Core/periphery structure models: An alternative methodological proposal

The idea of a structure made up of a core and periphery is a common, classic paradigm in many fields of science. Following this line, in 1999, researchers Stephen Borgatti and Martin Everett developed a model of structural analysis based on the delimitation of a core formed by a group of densely connected actors, in contrast to a class of actors, more loosely connected and forming the periphery of the system.The original approach of these authors is modified, employing measures that, in our opinion, show a larger degree of coherence and accuracy in the proposed objectives.     

Designing the safety of healthcare. Participation of ergonomics to the design of cooperative systems in radiotherapy

This communication deals with the involvement of ergonomists in a research-action design process of a software platform in radiotherapy. The goal of the design project is to enhance patient safety by designing a workflow software that supports cooperation between professionals producing treatment in radiotherapy. The general framework of our approach is the ergonomics management of a design process, which is based in activity analysis and grounded in participatory design. Two fields are concerned by the present action: a design environment which is a participatory design process that involves software designers, caregivers as future users and ergonomists; and a reference real work setting in radiotherapy. Observations, semi-structured interviews and participatory workshops allow the characterization of activity in radiotherapy dealing with uses of cooperative tools, sources of variability and non-ruled strategies to manage the variability of the situations. This production of knowledge about work searches to enhance the articulation between technocentric and anthropocentric approaches, and helps in clarifying design requirements. An issue of this research-action is to develop a framework to define the parameters of the workflow tool, and the conditions of its deployment.     

The sibling relationship as a housing alternative to institutionalization in later life

The nature of the sibling relationship in middle and later life and the potential of living with a sibling as an alternative to institutionalization when independent living may no longer be possible was assessed using interviews with a random sample of 41 persons 56 to 84 years of age. Forty-nine percent of the respondents had lived with a sibling in adulthood usually for more than one year and over one-half would consider living together again. Men were somewhat more likely to have lived with a sibling in adulthood than were women. When a sibling went to live with another sibling, it was to a sister's home in 90 % of the cases. Almost none had previously considered living with a sibling in later life but ranked living with a sibling second to living in a nursing home and ranked it comparably with living with children. When asked directly their willingness to live with a sibling in later life, respondents were almost equally divided. Age, number of children, educational level, and a feeling of closeness particularly in middle age were found to be moderately correlated with willingness to live with a sibling.Dolores Cabic Borland earned a Ph.D. from Texas Women's University in Sociology and is presently an Associate Professor in Family and Child Ecology at Michigan State University. Dr. Borland's current research interests include middle age and sibling relationships in middle age and later life.This research was supported in part by a grant from the Michigan State University Foundation, Grant # (ORD 26081) and parts were presented at the 1986 National Council on Family Relations Annual Conference. Requests for reprints should be sent to Dolores Cabic Borland, Ph.D., Department of Family and Child Ecology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1030.     

Community-based household waste management: Lessons learnt from EXNORA's ‘zero waste management’ scheme in two South Indian cities

This paper presents two case studies on the efforts by a community-based organisation to promote a sustainable integrated waste management system in Indian mega cities. This effort was initiated in 1989 by a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) called EXNORA and is based on a ‘zero waste management scheme’ set up, run and financed by the residents themselves. As this model has been widely quoted as successful, the study aims at learning from two communities implementing this model.Results are reported from a survey of the two schemes that used various tools to assess both their performance and sustainability in selected residential areas of two Indian cities, Chennai and Hyderabad. The results indicate limited success of the schemes both in saving a significant fraction of the generated waste from dumping, and in rehabilitating the local poor. However, they show that motivated individuals can successfully set up and manage waste collection systems that lead to overall environmental improvements. The differences in the two schemes reflect how the local assets and contexts impact on the success of the scheme. The scheme in a rich neighbourhood of Hyderabad was less ambitious in its overall objectives and focussed on the provision of a waste management service, using the opportunity to provide local employment to a socially deprived fraction of the population. The scheme in a middle-class area of Chennai, although pioneering in its approach, suffered from diseconomies of scale and lack of social integration, making it less viable in the medium to long term. Both schemes suffered from a lack of community involvement, motivation and political support, which threatens the long-term sustainability of the enterprise. The research concludes that the role that communities can realistically play in management of their own waste depends on the local context. The system advocated by EXNORA seems to require significant local resources, and political and technical support which are hard to find and sustain without strong local leaders. Another model set up in the city of Visakhapatnam is finally introduced as an alternative. This is based on triangular contracts between the municipality, the residents and micro-enterprises and may provide a good solution in dealing with the technical and commercial aspects which communities find difficult.     

Coaching als Instrument zur Kulturintegration bei Fusionen

Three very different cultures, which were distributed over many legal units, have been merged into one division of a large conglomerate, in a process of migration and integration that has taken over a year. Pooling the personnel from three different cultures and in addition at different points of time, seemed to the responsible management to be a critical factor for success. Changes had to be made during the ongoing operations. The challenges laid in consciously influencing the adaptation of the cultures during the very dynamic developments which were taking place in the workforce of each culture. A total of 13 coaching processes at various management levels of the three cultures, with intertwined schedules, supported the merge process in a defined core unit of the division at a cultural and interactive level. This contributed to a great extend in preventing conflicts. The increase in efficiency of the newly established company was the focal point of the consultancy. The range of very different and sometimes conflicting methods of working was big and manifested in completely different processes, quantity of regulations, conceptions of cooperation and varying perceptions of one-self and others.The following contribution consists of two sections. The first section gives the scope and the context of the assignment, upon which a plan was developed that uses the psychodynamic coaching as a targeted intervention in a turbulent environment. The second section describes a concrete process with microscenes from a team coaching program.     

Sociologist as Dean and Dean as Sociologist

This article highlights contrasts between the identity and values of sociology faculty members versus the identity and values of college administrators. Some of these contrasts include: questioning authority and speaking truth to power versus being in a position of authority and engaging in political compromise; taking a critical, reflective, and independent stance as a scholar versus a dean taking a stance of positive attitude and setting direction in the organization; and acting in an egalitarian and democratic fashion versus acting in a discriminating manner and making executive decisions. This article also explores the ways in which being a sociologist can inform a dean’s understanding of the structure and organizational life of the college and the group dynamics among faculty, students, administrators, and other constituents.     

Nutrition of the elderly: Interactions with physical activity

Elderly subjects have a lower energy requirement compared to young adults as a result of lower physical activity and a lower basal metabolic rate. A lower energy intake in the elderly could lead to undesirable low intakes of essential nutrients. The reduction of the energy turnover is caused by, or a consequence of, a decrease in active cell mass. Thus, the effect of exercise training on habitual activity across age ranges, and age-related changes in body composition in relation to habitual activity level, are investigated here. The focus is on data on physical activity and body composition obtained with doubly labelled water. The results suggest that exercise training does not affect energy requirement in the elderly and the age-related decrease in fat-free mass is not delayed in subjects with a relatively high habitual activity level. Beneficial effects of exercise training in the elderly are endurance, flexibility, range of motion and balance control, all contributing to a delay in the age-induced impairment of personal mobility. Energy intake will inevitably go down as a result of a reduction of the energy requirement. Thus, the nutrition of elderly subjects needs more attention with regard to the essential nutrients than the nutrition of younger adults.     

Trump and the legacy of a menacing past

The inability to learn from the past takes on a new meaning as a growing number of authoritarian regimes emerge across the globe. This essay argues that central to understanding the rise of a fascist politics in the United States is the necessity to address the power of language and the intersection of the social media and the public spectacle as central elements in the rise of a formative culture that produces the ideologies and agents necessary for an American-style fascism. In this project, education is central to politics, which demands understanding and critically interrogating, in particular, the role of the conservative media in suppressing history, normalizing a discourse of racial hatred, and advancing the most poisonous elements of neoliberalism. The essay calls for a comprehensive notion of politics and education that draws from history, imagines a present that does not imitate the future, and employs a language of critique and hope in the service of building a new broad-based political formation. If fascism begins with language so does the possibility of a radical social imaginary in which to envision a democratic socialist order that both challenges the menacing momentum of a fascist politics and the savagery of neoliberal capitalism.     

Teacher Training with a View Towards Developing Favourable Attitudes Regarding Intercultural Education and Cultural Diversity

An analysis of Spanish multiculturalism, together with the lack of systematic teacher training in the area of intercultural education, a fact which was revealed by a review of the educational programmes and strategies developed in our country, has led us to propose a training course which improves the attitudes of teachers and educators towards intercultural education and the ever‐growing cultural diversity in our country. The study, carried out using a quasi‐experimental methodology and based on the Theory of Reasoned Action, revealed that this type of training programme favours a positive predisposition in teachers towards the development of intercultural programmes in schools, a fundamental element in promoting a further dissemination of this particular focus throughout the whole of the educational system.     

Religion in the everyday lives of second‐generation Jains in Britain and the USA: resources offered by a dharma‐based South Asian religion for the construction of religious biographies,and negotiating risk and uncertainty in late modern societies

While the growth of spiritualties is associated with post‐traditional societies and the ability of individuals to engage in reflexive construction of religious biographies in late modernity, these arguments ignore various dimensions of reflexivity and processes of re‐traditionalization. In this article I explore linkages and affinity between social discourses in late modernity and a religion, with a distinctive ontology, originating in South Asia. Drawing on qualitative data, I examine processes involved in the construction of a religious self among second‐generation Jains in Britain and the USA. Living in late modern societies, young Jains have established a reflexive habitus. Such reflexivity has affinity with a neo‐orthodox tendency in Jainism that rejects the authority of ascetics and rituals while elevating one's own knowledge, discipline and insights in the construction of a Jain biography. I find that neo‐orthodox Jainism provides resources for young Jains to constantly reflect on and actively choose how to be a Jain; to enact cataphatic reflexivity in the construction of a Jain self. For some second‐generation Jains, the Jain tradition also provides resources to enact a non‐instrumental, apophatic reflexivity; a calm equanimous state that enables them to create ontological security in the face of risks and uncertainty in late modernity.     

Parental involvement in the development of a culture‐based school curriculum

This study focuses on parental involvement in Sámi schools when developing a culturally sensitive school curriculum. The research recognizes a number of competing and complementary interests that play a role when constructing structures and policies in curriculum development. Two Sámi schools in Sweden with 115 pupils, their parents and 27 teachers were included in a longitudinal three‐year study. Interviews, school visits, videotapes and document analysis were used to gather information. The results indicate the invisible existence of culture‐based school practice and curriculum texts. The lack of contact among homes, schools and community culture was obvious. Parents and teachers expressed an interest in developing a culture‐based local curriculum through a process of reflecting on and creating an education incorporating the past, the present and the future. The study showed that parents, pupils and teachers experienced increased awareness in culture‐based schoolwork. The study pointed to a desire for cooperation between home and school in the development of a culture‐based school curriculum and a school practice supported by a culturally responsible teacher.     

“Doing Gender”

Abstract

Through thinking about and empirically analyzing lesbigay domestic arrangements in Sweden, this paper aims at broadening the understanding of gender and further developing the “doing gender” perspective as applied to housework division. It begins with a review of empirical findings of and the application of the “doing gender” approach to housework division, identifying problems associated with a focus on heterosexual units in a context where gender norms are seemingly homogeneous and conventional. To make full use of the perspective, it is necessary to allow for contradictions in and resistance against normative expectations of gender. Empirically, this translates to exploring domestic arrangements in a variety of settings with different normative expectations of gender. This paper takes a small step in this direction through undertaking an empirical study of the division of housework in lesbigay households in Sweden and finds a strong pattern of egalitarianism that consists less in a 50% split between the couple in all household tasks but in the fluidity, complexity, and deliberateness in which housework is shared, especially among lesbian couples. The analysis further underscores the importance of gender in lesbigay households.