Fieldwork in forbidden terrain: the state,privatization and human subjects regulations

In this paper we explore the intersection of the modern-state and fieldwork practices within the social sciences. Our contention is that during the past decade or so there has been an expansion in forbidden or restricted research terrain that threatens the present and future conduct of social research. We argue that this restriction has been engendered by two related developments: privatization and human subjects regulations. The social and political implications of these trends are considered. Her most recent books areMadwives: Schizophrenic Women in the 1950s (Rutgers University Press, 1987) andGender Issues in Field Research (Sage, 1988). He is the author ofCastles of Our Conscience: Social Control and the American State, 1800–1985 (Forthcoming, Polity Press, Cambridge, U.K.)     

Permissions and the social context

By focusing on formal intensive interview research, this essay explores how the sociohistorical context influences the routine procedures by which sociologists obtained permission to conduct their studies. We examine the permissions process within the specific historical context of the 1950s and contrast it with contemporary issues of informed consent. The need for a more theoretical and situational understanding of permissions is identified, both in regard to human—subjects regulations and social control. Her most recent books areMadwives: Schizophrenic Women in the 1950s (Rutgers University Press, 1987) andGender Issues in Field Research (Sage, 1988). She has written extensively in the fields of mental illness and social control. Her current research focuses on the sociological analysis of art and culture as well as the processes of doing and writing fieldwork. She is also the co-managing editor of theMid-American Review of Sociology.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Singular Feminist . Kathleen Barry. New York and London: New York University Press, 1988, 426 pages.
Samhällsvetenskapens klassiker (The Classics of the Social Sciences) . Margareta Bertilsson and Bjorn Hansson, eds. Studentlitteratur, Lund, Sweden, 1988.
Feminist Perspectives on Wife Abuse , edited by Kersti Yllo and Michele Bograd. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1988, 318 pages, $35.00, hardback, $16.95, paperback.
The New Black Middle Class . Bart Landry. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987, xi + 250 pages, $22.50.
Families and Economic Distress: Coping Strategies and Social Policy , edited by Patricia Voydanoff and Linda C. Majka. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1988, 306 pages, $29.95 hardcover, $14.95 softcover.     

The Impacts of State Surveillance on Political Assembly and Association: A Socio-Legal Analysis

Based on group interviews conducted in 2006 that included 71 social justice organizations, this paper analyzes the impact of surveillance on the exercise of assembly and association rights. We link these protected legal activities with analytic frameworks from social movements scholarship in order to further a socio-legal conception of political violence against social movements.

Making sense of political contention: Approaches, substantive issues, and interpretation in social movement analysis

This review essay discusses and compares three books that cover aspects of political contention and social movements. The books are Freedom is an Endless Meeting: Democracy in American Social Movements by Francesca Polletta (Chicago: The University of Chicago, 2002); Making Sense of Social Movements by Nick Crossley (Buckingham: Open University Press, 2002); and Methods of Social Movement Research, edited by Bert Klandermans and Suzanne Staggenborg (Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 2002).     

Feminism,voluntarism and the welfare state: Toward a feminist sociological theory of social welfare

In current debates about social welfare, the terms public and private are often equated with state vs. nonstate realms. This paper argues that a feminist sociological analysis would reconstitute notions of public and private as forms of social relations that occur in a wide range of activity, thus disentangling them from institutional divisions. It reviews contemporary feminist theory and practice and spells out implications for a feminist sociological theory of social welfare. It uses these implications to look at a particular kind of women’s grassroots voluntary organization that contains possibilities for rethinking societal responses to social welfare needs. She is author ofWomen of the Upper Class (1984), and senior editor ofShifting the Debate: Public/Private Sector Relations in the Modern Welfare State (1987).     

Perceived risk associated with apparel purchasing in discount stores

Consumer discount store patronage preferences for apparel are investigated using the concept of perceived risk. Apparel items are assigned a type and level of risk: low social, low economic; high social, low economic; and high social, high economic. Females (N=222) responding to a mail survey rate their willingness to purchase each item in a discount store on a scale ofprefer to buy, may buy, ornever buy. Results suggest that consumer preference for purchasing in discount stores declines more sharply when economic risk increases than when social risk increases.Teresa A. Summers is Associate Professor of the School of Human Ecology, Textiles, Apparel Design and Merchandising at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. She received her Ph.D. from Texas Woman's University. Her research interest includes rural/urban consumer responses to changes in the marketplace.Frances C. Lawrence is Professor of the School of Human Ecology, Family, Child, and Consumer Sciences at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. She received her Ph.D. from Florida State University. Her research interests include family financial decision-making and family time use.Janice L. Haynes is Assistant Professor of the School of Human Ecology, Textiles, Apparel Design and Merchandising at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. She received her Ph.D. from Texas Woman's University. Her research interest includes retail patronage of specialized consumer market segments.Patricia J. Wozniak is Associate Professor of the Department of Experimental Statistics at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her research interests include survey methodology and rural families.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Abstract

TANGLED RELATIONSHIPS: MANAGING BOUNDARY ISSUES IN THE HUMAN SERVICES. By Frederic G. Reamer. New York: Columbia University Press 2001. 214 pp. $45.00 (hard), $22.50 (paper). Reviewed by Patricia O'Donnell, DSW

SPIRITUALITY WITHIN RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE. Edited by Mary Van Hook, Beryl Hugen, and Marian Aguilar. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Press, 2001. 300 pp. $43.95. Reviewed by Chris Stewart, PhD

SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION IN SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE: DECISION CASES WITH TEACHING NOTES. Edited by T. Laine Scales, Terry A. Wolfer, David A. Sherwood, Diana R. Garland, Beryl Hugen, and Sharon Pitman. Alexandria, VA: Council on Social Work Education, 2002. 219 pp. $29.95 (paper). Reviewed by Michael J. Sheridan

THEINVISIBLECARINGHAND:AMERICANCONGREGATIONS AND THE PROVISION OF WELFARE. By Ram A. Cnaan, with Stephanie C. Boddie, Femida Handy, Gaynor Yancey, and Richard Schneider. New York: New York University Press, 2002. 328 pp. $60 (hard), $19.50 (paper)., Reviewed by Bruce D. Friedman

UNDERSTANDING POVERTY Edited by Sheldon H. Danziger and Robert H. Haveman. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2001. 566 pp. $55.00 (hard), $24.95 (paper). Reviewed by Edward J. Ryle     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Ethnomethodology and the Human Sciences. Graham Button (ed.). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Text in Context: Contributions to Ethnomethodology. Graham Watson and Robert M. Seiler (eds.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1992. Shooting Dope: Career Patterns of Hard-Core Heroin Users, by Charles E. Faupel. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1991, 220 pages, $27.95, hardcover. Capitalist Development and Democracy, by Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Evelyne Huber Stephens, and John D. Stephens. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992, 387 pages, $45.00, hardback, $19.95, paper. What Does the Lord Require? How American Christians Think about Economic Justice, by Stephen Hart. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, 251 pages, $24.95, hardback. Understanding Everyday Racism: An Interdisciplinary Theory, by Philomena Essed. Newberry Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1991, 322 pages, $44.00, cloth. The Search for Rational Drug Control, by Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, 219 pages, $24.95, hardback. Micropolitics of Knowledge: Communication and Indirect Control in Workgroups, by Emmanuel Lazega. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1992, 149 pages, $37.95, hardback, $16.95, paperback. Studying Collective Action, Sage Modern Politics Series Volume 30, sponsored by the European Consortium for Political Research/ECPR, edited by Mario Diani and Ron Eyerman. London: Sage, 1992, 263 pages, $60.00, hardback.     

Ethical dimensions in trauma research

This article examines the methodological and ethical challenges in studying trauma caused by sexual abuse, poverty, homophobia, and racism. I propose that the challenges of studying trauma add nuance to perennial methodological questions about insider-outsider relations, research techniques, and the possible impact of research on social change. By drawing on a multiracial study I conducted that examined African American, Latina, and white women’s methods of coping with trauma, I trace how issues of identification and overidentification, boundary maintenance, narrative structures, and transference raise new ethical and methodological issues for researchers. I suggest that the longstanding sociological concern with oppression and injustice, and the trauma they often cause, requires continued exploration about why and how questions of ethics and methods are intertwined in trauma research. She is the author ofA Hunger So Wide and So Deep: American Women Speak Out on Eating Problems (U. of Minnesota Press, 1994) and co-editor (with Sangeeta Tyagi) ofBeyond A Dream Deferred: Multicultural Education and the Politics of Excellence (U. of Minnesota Press, 1993) andNames We Call Home: Autobiography on Racial Identity (Routledge, 1995).     

Sponsored Social Change in a Public Housing Project

Federal and local pressures have given rise to a hybrid organization that brings together disparate groups from the public and non-profit sectors to address complex social problems. This article examines one such organizational emergence of state-affiliated sponsorship. Based on data from a multi-method case study, we find that not only do members of the sponsoring organization use legitimate authority structures, existing laws, and social norms to reproduce their power, they do so with a state mandate that privileges their expertise and processes.Parts of this paper were prepared while the third author, Beth A. Rubin, was on leave to serve as Director, Sociology Program, National Science Foundation. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of the National Science Foundation. P. Denise Cobb is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. This research reflects one part of Cobb's dissertation research that addresses how organizational actors from unequal social positions define a collective agenda and whose interests prevail when there is a lack of consensus. Her current research further examines the emergence of the university-community partnership form. She has published related work in Administration & Society and previously in Qualitative Sociology. Jon Shefner is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Global Studies Interdisciplinary Program at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He is co-editor, with Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, of Out of the Shadows: Political Action and the Informal Economy in Latin America (2006: Pennsylvania State Press). He is currently working on a book examining the impact of globalization and democratization on the mobilization and well being of Mexico's urban poor. Beth A. Rubin is Professor of Management and Adjunct Professor of Sociology at University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Rubin publishes on economic and workplace transformation, labor unions, homelessness and social policy and social theory in leading academic journals. Her current research is on organizational commitment in the context of the new economy, inequality and industrial restructuring, organizational and workplace restructuring and time in organizations, the latter of which is represented in the forthcoming book, Research in the Sociology of Work: Workplace Temporalities, that Rubin is editing.     

Couple Therapy and Attachment: An Interview with Susan Johnson

Susan M. Johnson is an international expert in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT). She is a Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Marital and Family Therapy Clinic at Ottawa Civic Hospital. She is the author of The Practice of Emotionally Focused Marital Therapy – Creating Connection (Brunner/Mazel, 1996) and the co‐author of Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples: The Heart of the Matter. EFT is now one of the most empirically validated couples therapies and is accepted as such by the American Psychological Association. On sabbatical in 1999, she went to New Zealand and then visited Australia in April, conducting workshops in Sydney and Perth.     

Book reviews

The Significance of Schooling: Life‐Journeys in an African Society. Robert Serpell, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. 361 pages, $59.95.

Response to Patricia M. Greenfield's Review of The Significance of Schooling: Life‐Journey's in an African Society

Artifical Experts: Social Knowledge and Intelligent Machines. H. M. Collins. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1990. 266 pages, $15.95 (paper).     

I never had a mentor: Reflections of a chicano sociologist

By tracing the career path of a senior Chicano sociologist, this article attempts to gain insights into the problems and dilemmas faced by minority scholars in earlier stages of their careers. Tensions between the demands of a professional identity as a sociologist, on the one hand, and a personal identity as a Chicano, on the other, are isolated and discussed. It is suggested that this dynamic tension between professional and personal demands, coupled with expanding career opportunities and the emergence of Chicano Studies as an academic discipline, gave impetus to the development of an indigenous Chicano sociology that challenged traditional sociological paradigms and was grounded in Chicano culture and world view. His publications includeThe Age of Crisis (Harper & Row, 1975),La Chicana: The Mexican-American Woman (University of Chicago Press, 1980),The Chicano Experience (Notre dame University Press, 1985),Gringo Justice (Notre Dame University Press, 1987), and many journal articles dealing with race and ethnicity.     

Review essay: Slavery in Africa

The Ideology of Slavery in Africa. Edited by Paul E. Lovejoy. Beverly Hills and London: Sage Publications, 1981. 311pp.

Transformations in slavery: a history of slavery in Africa. By Paul E. Lovejoy. Cambridge University Press, 1983. xvi + 347pp. Bibl., Index.     

An odd and inseparable couple: Emotion and rationality in partner selection

The dichotomy between emotion and rationality has been one of the most enduring of sociological theory. This article attempts to bypass this dichotomy by examining how emotion and rationality are conjoined in the practice of the choice of a mate. We posit the fundamental role of culture in determining the nature of this intertwinement. We explore the culturally embedded intertwining of emotion and rationality through the notion of modal configuration. Modal configuration includes five key features: reflexivity, techniques, modal emphasis, modal overlap, and modal sequencing. We apply this framework to the topic of partner selection. Comparing primary and secondary sources on pre-modern partner selection and on internet dating, we show that emotion and rationality were intertwined in both periods but that what differs between them is precisely the emotion-rationality modality.

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Overcoming path dependency: path generation in open systems

Studies on societal path dependencies tend to focus on mechanisms that anchor and stabilize national trajectories while paying less attention to transnational interactions and multilevel governance. This paper explores processes of path transformation in societies that are presumed to have the characteristics of open systems. Two pairs of case studies are presented and compared. The first illustrates institutional change through collision, when a national path meets with another. The second describes the emergence of transnational institutional paths and the impact of that process on national institutions and their (potential) transformation. The results indicate that path transformation often stems from a gradual succession and combination of incremental steps and junctures – change is gradual but consequential. They also point to increasing co-evolutionary interaction between national path transformation and transnational path creation. This implies a need for analytical tools that are adapted to the analysis of multi-level, nested processes of institutionalization and de-institutionalization. The paper suggests that the concept of path generation allows for a better specification of the conditions for change in existing societal paths and for the emergence of new paths in the case of open systems than the concept of path dependency.

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Review article: Slavery and slavishness in Russia and America

Hellie, Richard, Slavery in Russia 1450–1725. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982. xix, 776 pp.

Kolchin, Peter. Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987. xiv, 517 pp.     

Radical Outcasts versus Three Kinds of Police: Constructing Limits in Japanese Anti-Emperor Protests

Field observation of anti-emperor protests in Japan reveals two key processes through which the interaction of police and demonstrators gradually narrows the limits of permitted dissent through soft repression. The first process stigmatizes demonstration participants and sharply separates them from the mainstream of Japanese public life, discouraging public attention to or participation in their causes. The second process divides protest movements internally, decreasing support for groups that operate at the prevailing limit of tolerated dissent, and gradually constricting the limit itself. Great variability in police-demonstrator interactions within demonstrations suggests the limitations of newspaper content analysis methods for such research. Patricia Steinhoff is Professor of Sociology at the University of Hawaii. A Japan specialist who studies Japanese radical left groups, she is the author or editor of twelve books, including three in Japanese, and eighty articles and book chapters. Recent publications include Doing fieldwork in Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 2003), which she co-edited with Theodore Bestor and Victoria Lyon Bestor, and “Kidnapped Japanese in North Korea: The New Left connection” Journal of Japanese Studies 30:1, Winter, 2004, pp. 123–142.     

The once and future information society

In the late twentieth century, many social scientists and other social commentators came to characterize the world as evolving into an “information society.” Central to these claims was the notion that new social uses of information, and particularly application of scientific knowledge, are transforming social life in fundamental ways. Among the supposed transformations are the rise of intellectuals in social importance, growing productivity and prosperity stemming from increasingly knowledge-based economic activity, and replacement of political conflict by authoritative, knowledge-based decision-making. We trace these ideas to their origins in the Enlightenment doctrines of Saint Simon and Comte, show that empirical support for them has never been strong, and consider the durability of their social appeal.

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