“Let's Talk about the Institution”: Same‐Sex Common‐Law Partners Negotiating Marriage Equality and Relationship Legitimacy

The 2005 Canada‐wide legalization of same‐sex marriage provided same‐sex couples with access to an institution they had previous been excluded from. Yet not all couples choose to marry. In this paper, we examine why this is the case, considering the role of personal, political, and historical factors. We draw on 22 interviews with people in common‐law same‐sex relationships in Toronto to examine how they understand their relationship within the new context of marriage equality. We find that participants feel they are held accountable to marriage as a default relationship legitimacy norm, indicating that this new institutional access is accompanied by a set of social expectations. Despite their awareness of the need to navigate a social context favoring marriage, participants individualize their relationship decisions as personal rather than political. Participants often contradict themselves as they articulate what marriage means to them, suggesting that, in this period of legal and social transition, people are negotiating multiple meanings, societal messages, and traditions when it comes to making sense of their relationship. We discuss the implications of these findings for LGBQ activism and the framing of sexuality‐based inequalities in Canadian society.     

Family Therapy Retention: An Observation of First‐Session Communication

This study examined the relationship between communication patterns and retention among families (n = 18) receiving family therapy. Those that attended 12 sessions were labeled completers (n = 6), 4–8 sessions were middle dropouts (n = 6), and 1–3 sessions were early dropouts (n = 6). Audiotape recordings of the first therapy session were transcribed. The content (positive or negative) and total percentage of communications by the parent, adolescent, and therapist were coded. Completer and middle dropout parents (but not adolescents) showed higher talk time proportions than parents in the early dropout group. Completer families had higher percentages of therapist‐to‐parent communications, while early dropout families had higher percentages of therapist‐to‐adolescent communications. There were no significant differences between middle dropouts and completers in either content or total communications. These findings demonstrate the potential utility of examining within‐session communication patterns and suggest that within‐session processes may determine therapy retention.     

Bridging the Border between Work and Family: The Effects of Supervisor‐Employee Similarity*

We examine the relationship between supervisor‐employee race/ethnicity, gender, and caregiving similarity and employees’ perceptions that supervisors provide support for bridging the border between work and family life. Employees report greater net perceived supervisor interactional support, but not instrumental support, when the immediate supervisor is the same race/ethnicity or the same gender as the employee, but not when they have similar caregiving responsibilities. Having a supervisor of the same gender is more salient for women and race/ethnic similarity is more salient for men. We also find patterns of difference in the relative salience of gender and race/ethnic similarity within race/ethnic/gender groups.     

Therapeutic Alliance and Retention in Brief Strategic Family Therapy: A Mixed‐Methods Study

We explored how the therapeutic alliance contributed to retention in Brief Strategic Family Therapy by analyzing videotapes of eight‐first sessions in which four therapists worked with one family that stayed in treatment and one family that dropped out. Although behavioral exchange patterns between clients and therapists did not differ by retention status, positive therapist alliance‐related behavior followed negative client alliance behavior somewhat more frequently in the retained cases. In the qualitative aspect of the study, four family therapy experts each viewed two randomly assigned sessions and commented on their quality without knowing the families’ retention status. A qualitative analysis of the audiotaped commentaries revealed 18 alliance‐related themes that were more characteristic of either the retained or the nonretained cases.     

Promises They Can Keep: Low‐Income Women’s Attitudes Toward Motherhood,Marriage, and Divorce

Using data on low‐income mothers in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio, we test three propositions regarding mothers’ attitudes toward childbearing, marriage, and divorce. These are drawn from K. Edin and M. J. Kefalas (2005) but have also arisen in other recent studies. We find strong support for the proposition that childbearing outside of marriage carries little stigma, limited support for the proposition that women prefer to have children well before marrying, and almost no support for the proposition that women hesitate to marry because they fear divorce. We suggest that mothers’ attitudes and preferences in these three domains do not support the long delay between childbearing and marriage that has been noted in the literature.     

“Earn Your Penny Elsewhere”: Banishment,Migrant Laborers,and Sociospatial Exclusion in Sixteenth‐Century Ulm*

Abstract The town council in Ulm, Germany banished over a thousand offenders in the course of the sixteenth century. Examination of the banishment verdicts issued by these magistrates reveals how they used expulsion to regulate both the physical borders of their territory and inclusion in the urban commune. In banishment cases involving resident aliens, the local authorities sought to expel resident aliens who seemed to threaten the community's property or its purity, using purgation to police the margin between legal and physical inclusion and exclusion. Finally, the local magistrates used the public expulsion rituals that accompanied banishment to display their role in regulating these boundaries before their subjects.     

Making Sense of Sustainability: Nine Answers to ‘What Should Be Sustained?’1

Abstract The concept of sustainability is central to many current natural resource debates. While the concept has substantial appeal, consensus on its meaning is lacking, especially concerning what combinations of resources or practices should be sustained. The many meanings of sustainability are addressed by first presenting four defining questions: what is sustained, why sustain it, how is sustainability measured, and what are the politics? These questions are used to identify what we see as nine distinct types of sustainability, each reflecting a different vision of which resources should be sustained. Illustrations are drawn from three major renewable natural resource areas—agriculture, forestry, and marine fisheries.     

Therapists Working in New and Old Ways: An Integrative Ecological Framework for Non‐Familial Intergenerational Relationships

Non‐familial intergenerational (NFIG) relationships can complement conventional therapeutic interventions. We discuss the intergenerational gap and structural changes families have experienced over the last several decades. We advocate for an integrative framework combining non‐familial intergenerational opportunities with conventional therapeutic interventions. Finally, we address logistical and ethical dimensions of the integrative framework and participants' fitness, motivation, potential, and needs within non‐familial intergenerational programs/partnerships.     

‘Someone of Your Own to Love’: Experiences of Being Looked After as Influences on Teenage Pregnancy

Previous research has shown that children and young people who are looked after are vulnerable to poor life outcomes, including early pregnancy. This paper examines how experiences of being looked after may contribute to teenage pregnancy. Using in‐depth interviews, data were collected from 63 young people recently looked after who are aged 15–24 and 78 professionals, across four research sites. The young people reported feelings of loneliness, rejection, stigma and not being able to trust others, emotions which seriously influenced their decisions about becoming parents. The findings suggest that such young people may benefit from a greater degree of emotional and practical support throughout their lives in care. Copyright © 2006 Institute of Education, University of London.