Reception Centres: an Index of Social Service Inadequacy

Summary This article examines reception centres, evaluates the adversecriticism there has been of them and suggests that it has divertedattention from the more important issue that the continued existenceand changed role of reception centres indicates the inadequacyof other health and social services     

Deprivation and Drug Addiction: A Study of a Vulnerable Sub-group

Summary The results of this survey confirm those of an earlier one,5and suggest that a young person who both uses illicit drugsand has a history of court findings, either for delinquencyor for 'being in need of care and protection', should be lookedupon as at considerable risk for future progression to narcoticuse. This progression is not simply a correlate of delinquencyor of remand home admission, as only one out of 100 controladmissions was discovered to have subsequently used narcotics.Moreover, this risk is not borne equally by all drug takersas, even on admission, there were significant mean differencesbetween the progressor and non-narcotic groups. The items whichwere most effective in distinguishing the three groups werethose relating to prior personality abnormality, prior psychiatricreferral and difficulty in relating to their peers and to adultsevidenced in their school and work reports. These differencesare thus of prognostic importance and may aid the identificationat an early stage of those soft-drug takers who are most vulnerableto the dangers of subsequent progression to narcotic and intravenousdrugs     

The transnational politics of the Tomato King: meaning and impact

Abstract In this article we deploy transnational ethnography to explore the transnational electoral politics by which Andrés Bermúdez, a successful tomato grower and labour contractor from Winters, California, who came to be called ‘the Tomato King’, was elected mayor of the municipality of Jerez in the Mexican state of Zacatecas. We seek to explain the meaning of his transnational electoral victory and its impact on the role of ‘the migrant’ as a new social actor in Mexican political development. We thus situate the Bermudista phenomenon in the context of the literature on migrant transnational politics. We hope to move the literature on migrant political transnationalism forward by advancing an agency‐oriented perspective that incorporates both the politics of representation of ‘el migrante’ in transnational electoral campaigns and the emerging dynamics of transnational coalition politics. Our approach underlines the need to carefully historicize the relationship between transnationalism and citizenship ‐ namely, to map the contingency and agency underlying the changing practices of states, migrants, and transnational institutional networks vis‐à‐vis questions of transnational citizenship. This is best done by paying close attention to the actual social and political practices whereby human agents pursue historically specific political projects that extend the practices of citizenship across borders.     

CURBSIDE RECYCLING IN THE PRESENCE OF ALTERNATIVES

We measure the extent to which curbside access affects quantity recycled. We use novel data to distinguish between new recycling and material diverted from other recycling modes. We find that the marginal impact of expanding curbside programs on total recycled quantities is small, in part because curbside programs significantly cannibalize returns from drop-off recycling centers. Failure to account for cannibalization from other modes may substantially overestimate the benefits of curbside programs. We conclude with simple cost-effectiveness comparisons. Results suggest that incremental expansion of curbside access may not be cost-effective. ( JEL Q53, Q58, H72)     

A Symbolic Interactionist Analysis of Politics

The purpose of this article will be to outline a symbolic interactionist approach to the study of politics in the United States. In the course of this presentation, the basic assumptions and concepts of the interactionist perspective will be presented, culminating in a model of society as a negotiated order. This model in conjunction with definitions of power and politics will provide the basis for analyzing the processes of power. The article will focus on and emphasize two mechanisms of power, information flow control and symbolic mobilization of support, which have previously been unrecognized and unan-alyzed. In the conclusion, the strengths and weaknesses of the approach will be discussed.     

Statistical Errors in Papers in the British Journal of Social Work (Volumes 1-14)

Summary This paper examines the statistical error rate in the BritishJournal of Social Work (BJSW), volumes 1–14. Half of thepapers (n=175) contain empirical data and half do not. Fifty-nineof the empirical articles are quantitative with statisticalanalysis; they account for 17% of the papers in the first 14volumes. Thirty-nine of these papers (66%) make 57 errors, arate which is comparable to that reported in the British Journalof Psychiatry. Nineteen papers (32%) make serious errors. Examplesof the type of errors are described. The wider use of reliablestatistical advice, prior to undertaking data collection, isrecommended.     

Working together for whose benefit?

SUMMARY. Lack of multi-disciplinary cooperation was seen by the Cleveland Inquiry as one of the major causes of what went wrong. The need for the many different professionals to work together in child abuse has been stressed many times before, but in sexual abuse matters the task, seems particularly daunting. This article reviews the traditional barriers to cooperation, applies them to sex abuse and suggesfs ways of beginning to overcome them