Changing Practice

This article is based on a keynote address given on the last day of the 2011 International Society for Culture & Activity Research (ISCAR) Congress in Rome. The first part reflects on the kind of work being presented at the conference. It was exciting and stimulating to learn about a rich range of new research in many different venues during the week. It also seemed important to reflect on what seemed to be missing, omissions that were common across the many themes and discussions. The second part of the article explores concrete examples of research, both in theory and in practice, which I hope may suggest to ISCAR participants some unusual possibilities for changing their own research practices between now and the next ISCAR congress in three years.     

Changing to Learn

SUMMARY

This paper provides an overview of the use of “communication and information technologies' (C&IT) in social work education in Britain. It outlines the development of the use of “learning technologies' generally, and focuses specifically, on the impact of “learning technology' in social work education and training. It looks at various factors influential in achieving, or blocking, cultural change in higher education, which may be of interest to social work educators in other countries.     

Changing marriage patterns

Abstract

In recent times marriage has seemingly become less popular, more fragile and less of an exclusive setting for having children. This paper examines recent changes in marriage, cohabitation, divorce and re-marriage patterns. It suggests that much of the decline in marriage rates, seen since the beginning of the 1970s, is likely to be due to people marrying at increasingly older ages, rather than a wholesale rejection of marriage. One of the more important elements influencing changes in marriage patterns is the rise in cohabitation. We track the development of cohabitation and note that it is now virtually a majority practice prior to marrying and commonplace prior to a re-marriage. Few cohabitations continue for extended periods

Cohabitation generally precedes rather than substitutes for marriage. However, a growing minority of couples are no longer marrying before becoming parents and this has contributed to the recent doubling in the proportion of extra-marital births. Over recent decades more people have been divorcing and divorcing earlier in marriage. Re-marriage remains a popular option, although there have been marked declines in re-marriage rates which may be due to more divorced people cohabiting and cohabiting for longer periods     

Changing comprehensive schools

SUMMARY. After a slow start, in changing from traditional school models, comprehensive schools have more recently been changing in ethos, curriculum and organisation as shown by a local study in Wales. It seems likely that the same trends have been occurring nationally with an increasing emphasis on social as well as academic objectives. This article considers what effects new educational policies may have on this ‘radicalisation’ of the comprehensive sector     

News‐Media and Terrorism: Changing Relationship,Changing Definitions

This article discusses two aspects that are important for understanding the relationship between Western news media and terrorism: the changing representation of terrorists and terrorist attacks in the media and, with it, the changing definition of terrorism. By calling attention to evolving news media practices in times of terrorism, I argue that advanced communication technologies and the emergence of global media ecology since the 1990s has made terrorism more visible in both national and international media landscapes. One result is that the more the news media expose terrorism to global audiences via the “front door,” the more controversial the use of the terms “terrorism” and “terrorist” become in social, political, and scholarly discourses. The paper addresses the evolving journalistic practices and their consequences as documented in previous studies on media reporting of terrorism in several national contexts, mostly the UK, the United States, and Israel.     

Changing Meanings, Changing Institutions: An Institutional Analysis of Patent Legislation

Conceptions of patents have changed significantly over the past two centuries, reflecting broad changes in state structures and the international system. In the late eighteenth century, the creation of democratic states such as the United States and France encouraged the conceptualization of patents as an economic and political right belonging to an individual, rather than to a corporate body such as a guild. A second conception of patents arose in the nineteenth century in which patents become a state-based mechanism for motivating economic growth. In the late twentieth century, patents have become conceptualized as an essential part of the economic infrastructure of a state, for both industrialized and less developed countries. This conceptualization has allowed international development organizations to become central in the diffusion of patent legislation to less developed countries. These changes in conceptions about patents did not always occur smoothly, however. Major controversies over the role and usefulness of patents occurred in each century, implying that the diffusion of patent legislation was by no means inevitable. This paper illustrates these arguments with a historical discussion of patents and a statistical analysis that models the adoption of patent legislation for all countries from 1790–1984.     

Changing methodologies for research

Abstract

The methodology of the social sciences has developed in the 21st century to a sub-optimal state and in this way research programs for handling complex societal problems are frustrated. To manage this deadlock the author returns to the original aims of the social sciences. He shows that in the past, concepts and aims were developed that goes beyond this regression. Those original starting points are connected to modern ideas of advanced interdisciplinary research, such as practiced in action science, system dynamics and computer simulation. With this exploration a more advanced methodology for social change and organisational transformation is outlined.     

Changing Needs and Changing Service Delivery for Long-Term Care in Hong Kong

Summary

Both the need for and delivery of long-term care in Hong Kong are shaped by the interaction of the traditional and modern. Rapid social change is affecting traditional family structures and roles in care of the elderly, resulting in increased demand for formal care, which to date has been provided mainly by way of residential care. This growth of demand will escalate with rapid population aging in coming decades. In response to this burgeoning demand, current planning is seeking to reshape the established service system and tackle problems in service delivery in ways that will address the bias towards residential care and improve quality of care.     

Changing Forms of Inequality

Individual sorting models prevail in current explanations of inequality, but individual sorting systems form rarely and depend on extensive institutional infrastructure. Inequality results more generally from the conjunction of socially organized categories with (a) clique control of value–producing resources, (b) clique deployment of those resources in relations of exploitation and/or opportunity with members of subordinated or excluded categories, backed up by (c) emulation and adaptation. Historically, major value–producing resources in the production of inequality have included coercive means, labor, animals, land, commitment–maintaining institutions, machines, financial capital, information, media, and scientific–technical knowledge. In the future, financial capital, information, media, and scientific–technical knowledge will play increasing parts in the generation of social inequality.     

Changing Perceptions through Contact

Contact has long been the major vehicle for changing beliefs and perceptions of minority groups. However, few studies in the area of integration of people with mental retardation have examined underlying assumptions of contact situations. Contact between volunteers and people with mental retardation at a Special Olympics' state games was examined within a theoretical framework wherein mental retardation was viewed as social construct and contact conceptualized within five components of contact theory. Theoretical and empirical study indicated that instances of negative effect limit the extent of change in perceptions the general public hold of people with mental retardation. However, contact, as compared to no contact, does contribute to positive changes in perceptions.     

The Changing National Policy System

Changes in congressional processes, health agendas, and competitive positions of physician and hospital groups in the 1980s have produced important setbacks for such group interests within Medicare. Though united and successful in opposing Carter's 1977-79 hospital cost-containment proposals, these groups were subjected to severe new limits on hospital reimbursements under the 1982 budget reconciliation act. Thereafter, problems in protecting their interests continued or increased. Disagreements among hospital groups (e.g., the American Hospital Association and the former Federation of American Hospitals) surfaced over the Prospective Payment System introduced in 1983. In 1984, Congress instituted a freeze on physicians' Medicare fees despite AMA opposition. This projected narrow self-interest, thus decreasing the AMA's credibility. Further cost restrictions were imposed in 1985-86 budget acts. The problems of these organizations indicate that if aging groups are to protect their own stake in Medicare in the new political context, they must be particularly concerned with unity, credibility, and long-term perspectives.     

The Changing Vogue of Liberalism

In the current era of high-stakes testing and accountability, many social studies teachers struggle to find creative ways to add depth and authenticity to a broad, shallow curriculum. Teachers can use the time after tests are administered for students to reflect back on the social studies curriculum and select topics they want to study more deeply by digging “postholes,” or inquiries into questions, persons, processes, or events of their choosing. This article describes one teacher's efforts to implement an inquiry project in which she conferred with her students individually to formulate research questions and a research strategy and gave them opportunities to publicly and authentically share their work.