COALITION FORM AND MOBILIZATION EFFECTIVENESS IN LOCAL SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Little has been written on the form that coalitions take in social movements. Three months of fieldwork by a five-person team documented the population of social movement events (SMEs) across seven movements in a Southwestern city. We investigated the process and form that led to these events at the interorganizational level. Three different coalition forms, as well as single social movement organizations (SMOs) acting alone, organized the SMEs. The network invocation form a single SMO making strategic and framing decisions while encouraging other SMOs in its network to mobilize participants was significantly more effective than other forms at mobilizing attendance at events.     

Families and Mental Illness: Contested Perspectives and Implications for Practice and Policy

Abstract

Mental health research, policy, and service provision over the last 50 years have constructed families and their connections with mental illness in various and contradictory ways. Three distinct but intersecting perspectives derive from the clinical mental illness literature, the family advocacy movement, and mental health policy. Within the clinical literature, the perspective of families is largely one of blame and pathology. By contrast, the family advocacy movement has generated the perspective of the burdened family, whereas mental health policy has created the perspective of the obligated caregiver. The result is an ambiguous understanding of the role of the family in both contributing and responding to mental illness. Implications for policy and practice include the need for a commitment to the principles of partnership with families, a recognition of diversity within families, recognising the difference between carer and family positions, and a need for policy to reflect the position of family as both intimately concerned, but not necessarily responsible, for patient care.     

Multiculturalism in Social Work Ethics

The authors analyze the treatment of multiculturalism in the 1999 National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics, arguing that it presents multiculturalism as a knowledge base and area in which social workers should demonstrate competence rather than as a guiding principle of virtuous practice. They criticize the ramifications of this application, and propose three arguments for repositioning multiculturalism in the Code as a principle of ethical practice rather than a specific knowledge area.     

Homelessness Among Out-of-Treatment Drug Users in Long Beach,CA*

Abstract

Two studies were conducted to determine the reliability of measures of homelessness (Study 1), and to use these measures to predict homelessness from data collected over a 1O-year period (Study 2). For Study 1, to determine test-retest reliability, the Risk Behavior Assessment (REA; National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1991) was administered twice within a 48-hour period. Cohen’s kappa was calculated at .86 for the two REA measures of homelessness. For Study 2, to predict homelessness from data collected over a 10-year period, a logistic regression model was built. Earlier homelessness and illegal income were identified as risk factors; number of times tested for HIV and Black ethnicity were identified as protective against homelessness. Predictive accuracy was assessed with a reduced bias method approximating jackknifing techniques. These findings point to the need to provide enhanced services-including HIV testing opportunities andjob training- to the homeless.     

Strategies Used by Gay and Bisexual Young Men to Cope With Heterosexism

ABSTRACT

Although the pervasiveness of heterosexism in the lives of gay and bisexual youth is well established, little is known about the strategies these youth use to cope with stigma and discrimination based on their sexual minority status. In this qualitative study, the authors present findings and implications for clinical practice based on interviews with 43 gay and bisexual young men. Respondents’ coping strategies are discussed in relation to current theory and research on coping with stigma, as well as the emerging field of emotion regulation. The narratives from the current study suggest that the emotion regulation paradigm is well suited to understanding the functions of strategies for coping with heterosexism and similar types of stigma.     

Insights from a Management Prophet: Mary Parker Follett on Social Entrepreneurship

Current‐day management leaders such as Peter Drucker and Rosabeth Moss Kanter have cited Mary Parker Follett as guru and prophet given her foreknowledge of systems theory, action research and leadership. She viewed business as a social institution and work itself as a community service, concepts particularly relevant in the context of understanding social entrepreneurship. Referencing two of her works, “The Individual in Society” and “Business in Society”, this paper introduces Follett, defines social entrepreneurship and presents her ideas as timely insights on the meaning of work, ethics and the role of business in society.     

The last drag: an evaluation of an LGBT-specific smoking intervention

Many studies in the past 20 years have documented that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals smoke at rates that exceed the general population, yet, there have been few reports of smoking cessation interventions targeting this population. This study reports on data from 233 participants in The Last Drag, a seven-session, six-week group education and support intervention tailored for LGBT smokers. Data on smoking rates were collected during the first and last sessions, and at one, three, and six months post-intervention. As with many interventions over time, missing data is a challenge in determining success rates, but even using the most conservative estimates, nearly 60% were smoke-free at the end of the intervention, and 36% remained smoke-free by six months post-intervention. This success rate is comparable to, or better, than many mainstream smoking cessation interventions reported in the literature. The Last Drag is an effective, low-cost, LGBT-specific community intervention that can be replicated in other communities.     

Environmental stewardship footprint research: linking human agency and ecosystem health in the Puget Sound region

Urbanization processes challenge ecosystem health in many metropolitan areas. New policy and program approaches are needed to restore and sustain natural systems as public agencies and organizations face greater demands and declining budgets. Environmental stewardship is an often overlooked intervention strategy, and the full potential of civic engagement by citizens on behalf of ecosystem health is little understood. Using a coupled systems approach, integrated analysis of social and ecological footprints can lead to greater theoretical understanding and more effective programs at the landscape scale. Here we outline two pilot studies as part of an emergent research program that is investigating the extent and impact of environmental stewardship. Qualitative interviews of stewardship managers revealed multiple dimensions of motivations and purposes for stewardship, ranging from the practical to the conceptual. A regional organization census yielded a surprisingly large number of organizations that conduct stewardship, with social and ecological values being of comparable emphasis. The initial research is based in the Puget Sound area of Washington State, U.S., but results have relevance to other urban areas. Pilot study findings now guide additional research effort about motivations, organizational networks, and theory of integrated socio-ecological systems to be derived from comprehensive footprint analysis of stewardship activity.     

Truth and consequences: using the bogus pipeline to examine sex differences in self-reported sexuality

Men report more permissive sexual attitudes and behavior than do women. This experiment tested whether these differences might result from false accommodation to gender norms (distorted reporting consistent with gender stereotypes). Participants completed questionnaires under three conditions. Sex differences in self-reported sexual behavior were negligible in a bogus pipeline condition in which participants believed lying could be detected, moderate in an anonymous condition, and greatest in an exposure threat condition in which the experimenter could potentially view participants responses. This pattern was clearest for behaviors considered less acceptable for women than men (e.g., masturbation, exposure to hardcore & softcore erotica). Results suggest that some sex differences in self-reported sexual behavior reflect responses influenced by normative expectations for men and women.