点草成金,巧手编织致富梦

返乡创业的周艳文通过一双巧手编织创业梦想,让更多人了解草编,并喜欢上了这一有着悠久历史的民间手工艺。她说之所以甘当“草民”,不仅是为了传承和守护传统工艺,也因为草编艺术不仅改变了自己的命运,更成为她带领姐妹们走上脱贫致富道路的有效途径。     

Turning points and intersubjectivity

A crucial ingredient of turning points in psychotherapy is the intersubjective transaction. Turning points are defined as shifts in the patient's behavior, attitudes, or feelings while intersubjectivity refers to that process of reciprocal influence in which each person in the therapeutic dyad influences and is influenced by the other. Four major aspects of the relationship of turning points to the intersubjective transaction are discussed: the empathic alliance, the linkage of interpretation and attachment, the role of the therapist's past experiences and the fear of existential loneliness. Two case illustrations demonstrate the way in which the awareness of the therapists and patient's subjectivities enhances the therapeutic progress.     

Back to Basics

Nonprofits are under increased accountability pressures to demonstrate their effectiveness. Output measurement (how much is produced) is disregarded as simplistic. Emphasis is made instead on measuring outcomes (changes in the lives of beneficiaries) or impacts (effects developed relative to the mission of the nonprofit, or the overall public good), and a growing portion of organizations state that they measure these effects. However, we question the assumption that outputs such as the number of beneficiaries served are being adequately measured. We first review existing research gaps on results measurement practices and discuss the main types of obstacles to the quality and utility of evaluation data. In this context, we argue for the need to reground nonprofit evaluation in the profound knowledge available about beneficiary populations. We discuss the potential and limitations of reach, a basic output indicator that is defined as the number of individuals directly affected by a nonprofit, and explore the organizational drivers of reach measurement. Evidence from 2,229 nonprofits shows they still lack adequate data on the beneficiaries they serve, face relevant conceptual and practical hurdles when trying to identify them, and are significantly influenced by organizational factors in their capacity to track them. Our research not only shows that nonprofits fail to adequately measure outputs, but also that measuring the number of beneficiaries served and how they are served is not as straightforward as outcome and impact advocates suggest. Practitioners and funders are reminded of the need to place beneficiaries at the core of their evaluation efforts.     

Bringing Poulantzas Back In

Not only does the state theory of the late Nicos Poulantzas recapitulate the history of Marxist state theory at large, it also moves beyond the boundaries of this history, showing up its limitations and asking new questions that still, in this age of 'globalization', await their proper settlement-some of the terms of which are set out in advance, as it were, by Poulantza's writings.     

Back from the Ashes

OCTOBER 18,1998. Paris. A 1,800-strong audience packedthemselves into the 1,492-seat capacityof the Le Notre Hall of the Louvre. TheDawn of the Chinese Nation—Ancientand Modern Fashion Show was in fullswing. 123 suits demonstrated the 4,000-year-old culture of Chinese costume andaccessories. The fantasy show by 30Chinese models and three French modelsenthralled the onlookers. The French Prime Minister, Vedrine,came to the show and told the reporter:Chinese garments are really beautiful. I     

Going Back and Giving Back: The Ethics of Staying in the Field

This article analyzes the benefits and ethical dilemmas of going back and continuing to write about the troupe of drag queens featured in our book, Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret. The benefits include providing the drag queens the opportunity to revise and add to the stories we told about them and, through deepening friendships, changing the balance of power among us. Challenges include dealing with responses to the book, including those of family members, and conflicts over the royalties we shared with the troupe. Despite the pitfalls, going back contributes to public sociology by continuing conversations about research findings.     

School Failure as an Adolescent Turning Point

Abstract

Recently, researchers have devoted significant attention to the influence of turning points such as marriage, employment, and military service on criminal desistance in adulthood. Because offending peaks in adolescence, the relative lack of research on influential adolescent turning points is notable. Given the extensive research linking school failure to deleterious adult development, we propose that school failure (late grade retention and school dropout) is a marked transition in adolescence, with the potential to operate as a turning point in the life course. Using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), we first examine structural, relational, and individual predictors of school failure in adolescence. Second, we assess whether school failure amplifies delinquency in late adolescence. We find evidence supporting our contention that school failure operates as an adolescent turning point, and we confirm that school failure is significantly predicted by structural, relational, and individual factors. Although school failure may be thought of as the end result of a long-term process of academic disengagement, our research suggests that it is also a pivotal, negative turning point in the life course.     

Turning Points and Trajectories in Military Deployment

Previous military family research has assumed a stable set of deployment phases. In line with critiques of such models within family communication, we identified the varied turning points and trajectories military spouses experience across deployment. We interviewed 50 Army and Army National Guard wives whose husbands served in missions to Iraq and Afghanistan. Participants graphed turning points and corresponding marital satisfaction levels across a recent deployment. Participants reported 519 turning points that fell into four supraordinate categories: Deployment/Military-Related Events, Life Events, Communication Events, and Other. Trajectories within each deployment phase reflected five patterns: Turbulent, Increasing, Decreasing, Stabilized, and Dipped. Most participants' trajectories reflected turbulence during the predeployment and deployment phases, and declining or dipped satisfaction during the postdeployment period. Results reflect varied experiences and provide useful information for those experiencing wartime separations or those supporting military families through deployment.     

Back and Forth and Beyond

The Journal invited Tom Andersen, author of major pioneering work on the reflecting team, and his colleagues, to offer comment on The Reflecting Team Process in Training. We thought such a north-south dialogue was in keeping with the spirit of reflecting teams, and the team members in Melbourne and Tromsø agree — Editor.     

Paying Forward and Paying Back

Twenty years after the conclusion of a fieldwork study, a member of the family that once served as my informant came to live with me. This reflexive account of Ari's stay in our home juxtaposes his socialist kibbutz life with that of my own hypercommodified individualistic urban life. His experiences of working in the illegal economy raise questions about my own hiring practices. In short, we confront ourselves through our respondents' cultural vision. Ultimately, in revisiting a study I had thought complete, this account raises the question of what we owe those people who help us to gain knowledge about their culture, the currency of our careers.     

Turning Social Return on Investment on Its Head

This article undertakes a critique of social return on investment (SROI), combining the existing research literature with an analysis of six case studies of supported social enterprises employing people with disabilities and other challenges that affect their access to the conventional labor market. The critique of SROI focuses on its positivist roots and its emphasis on one number, the SROI ratio. It also discusses the technical challenges in producing that number, including concerns about its reliability. The article presents the stakeholder impact statement, an approach that is rooted in interpretivism and attempts to understand the impact of enterprises through the eyes of multiple stakeholders. Unlike SROI, which is a supplement to conventional accounting statements, the stakeholder impact statement integrates financial and social impact data, thereby placing them on the same level of importance.