Modeling the welfare impacts of agricultural policies in developing countries

This paper presents a new model incorporating features of developing country agriculture likely to shape the welfare outcomes of alternative agricultural policies. The model features heterogeneous households linked through markets in a rural economy-wide structure, with endogenous market participation for farmers facing transactions costs. We use it to simulate the impacts on rural welfare of market price supports, production subsidies, input subsidies, and the removal of transaction costs. Applications to six countries demonstrate the diversity of potential impacts, exhibit some systemic differences compared with impacts in developed countries, and identify specific circumstances under which market interventions may be only slightly less efficient than direct payments at transferring incomes to rural households.     

Empowerment, Identity and Participatory Research: using social action research to challenge isolation for deaf and hard of hearing people from minority ethnic communities

This paper considers the practice of empowerment within a social action approach, and the importance of an analysis of issues of identity, for an understanding of the experience of individuals and their communities. The discussion is grounded in the experience of conducting a research project on the 'needs of deaf and hard of hearing people from minority ethnic communities', living in the London Borough of Merton. The theme of 'isolation' is taken as a focus for the discussion. It was identified by respondents to be of central importance to an understanding of their experience. The Social Model of Disability and the concept of Deaf Culture are used to explore the complex set of relationships that characterise the day-to-day reality for deaf and hard of hearing people from minority ethnic communities, and recommendations are made to assist researchers and service providers in developing a more empowering practice.     

A Sociological Overview of Cortisol as a Biomarker of Response to the Social Environment

Cortisol is a stress hormone that is reactive to social stress and thus should be of use to sociologists interested in understanding specific processes related to the broad category of “threats to the social self”. In this paper I use cortisol as a case study to explore the utility of biomarkers for elucidating the relationship between the social environment and human biology. I focus on cortisol because it is a stress hormone that reacts in particular to social stress, and therefore could be of special interest to sociologists. I first discuss the relationship between the social environment and cortisol response. Then I briefly review sociological literature that uses cortisol as a measure. Finally, I provide an overview of how to use cortisol in research projects. This overview addresses some of the basic questions that are typically asked by social scientists who are considering taking cortisol measures in their own work.     

Global Mental Health in Action: Reducing Disparities One Community at a Time

There are great disparities in mental health care around the world. Traditional approaches to mental health care have not been found to be transferrable to many parts of the world and are inadequate to address these disparities. Unconventional approaches are needed that match the traditions of care‐seeking and care‐giving within the communities where they are delivered. The authors review the global mental health literature and discuss how marriage and family therapists are in a particularly good position to have worldwide impact on mental health disparities. Five principles of global mental health are presented along with an example of how these principles are applied through the Reducing Mental Health Disparities One Community at a Time (RD1CT) model.     

Feminist Methodology in Social Movements Research

Feminist social scientists have developed distinctive principles of inquiry that depart from the positivist ideal of the detached, value-free scientist and are consistent with the feminist goal of rendering women's experiences visible and challenging gender inequality. In this article, I show how my research on the postpartum depression self-help movement illustrates five features of feminist methodology: a gender perspective, accentuation of women's experiences, reflexivity, participatory methods, and social action. My intent is to demonstrate how attention to the epistemological and methodological questions posed by feminist researchers produces new standards of evidence that allow us to recognize the gendering of social movement processes and theory.     

Measurement of Dating Aggression During Middle School: Structure,Measurement Invariance,and Distinction From General Aggression

Two studies examined the factor structure of a modified version of the Safe Dates dating aggression scale and evaluated whether dating aggression is distinct from general aggression during early adolescence. Analyses were conducted on a derivation sample of 3,894 adolescents from 37 schools (Study 1) and an independent cross‐validation sample of 938 middle school youth (Study 2). Categorical confirmatory factor analyses supported a two‐factor model (perpetration and victimization) over models differentiating psychological and physical forms of aggression. The model was invariant across time, sex, grade, and season. Study 2 also supported dating aggression as distinct from general aggression. Results supported measuring dating aggression perpetration and victimization as latent constructs represented by ordered categorical indicators that capture item severity and frequency.     

Children and safety in Australian policy: Implications for organisations and practitioners

Child safety is now a national policy priority in Australia. Extensive enquiries and reviews have escalated legislative and policy responses focused on developing, maintaining and monitoring “child safe” organisations. The recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse point to the importance of cultural conditions within organisations in supporting child safety and the need for responsive change in some organisations. Drawing on a recent policy analysis, undertaken as part of a larger Australian Research Council Discovery Project, this article examines how children and safety are constructed, within and across relevant state and federal government policies in Australia, and the implications of this. Distinctions are drawn between conceptualisations of children within the broader education policy context and two specific policy contexts in which children are considered particularly vulnerable to abuse – out‐of‐home care and disability. The findings indicate that policy discourses of “child safe” potentially foster different emphases and approaches in organisations. These have implications for the way children are positioned in relation to their safety, how their rights are recognised and implemented, and what is required to foster cultural conditions within organisations to best support children’s safety and wellbeing.     

Ritualized ethnic identity: Asian Indian immigrants in the southern plains

In this article, we add to the literature on feeling over- or underworked (hour mismatch) by examining the influence of work and family relationships; social stratification (occupation, education, financial stability); household labor (hours of housework and childcare); and attitudes toward paid and unpaid labor. Our analysis of hour mismatches is informed by several theories, including Jacobs and Gerson's dual-earner couple hypothesis and notion of the polarization of the workforce and Hochschild's reversed worlds hypothesis. We use the 1994 Americans' Changing Lives data, splitting the sample by sex in our analysis. Our findings indicate that hours spent on childcare affect men's hour mismatches, while hours spent on housework affect women's. In addition, we find that attitudes toward housework and paid labor play an important role in tempering perceptions of hour mismatches. Our findings illustrate the way that gender structures perceptions of ideal work hours and the ability to achieve them.     

The relationship between the professionalization of public relations,societal social capital and democracy: Evidence from a cross-national study

What does public relations contribute to society? This research study examined how public relations professionalism is related to social capital and democracy. The relationships between public relations professionalization, social capital and democracy were studied through the public relations professionalization index (PRPI). The PRPI examined a cross-national dataset that pools information from 36 countries and the results of the regression analyses suggest that the PRPI is a reliable measure of public relations professionalization. Overall, the analyses suggest that public relations contributes to societies by building relationships that create social capital and enhance the development of democracy. The findings inform a model that begins to explain the relationship between the professionalization of public relations, social capital and democracy.