The death of mourning: from Victorian crepe to the little black dress

Mourning is a natural response to loss. In the late eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth century, in England and France, the bereaved was expected to follow a complex set of rules, particularly among the upper classes, with women more bound to adhere to these customs than men. Such customs involved wearing heavy, concealing, black costume and the use of black crepe veils. Special black caps and bonnets were worn with these ensembles. Widows were expected to wear these clothes up to four years after their loss to show their grief. Jewelry often made of dark black jet or the hair of the deceased was used. To remove the costume earlier was thought disrespectful to the deceased. Formal mourning culminated during the reign of Queen Victoria. Her prolonged grief over the death of her husband, Prince Albert, had much to do with the practice. During the succeeding Edwardian rule, the fashions began to be more functional and less restrictive, but the dress protocol for men and women, including that for the period of mourning, was still rigidly adhered to. When World War I began, many women joined the workforce. Most widows attempted to maintain the traditional conventions of mourning, but with an increase in the number of casualties, it became impractical for them to interrupt their work in order to observe the seclusion called for by formal mourning etiquette. Never had the code of mourning been less strictly applied than during this period. The mourning outfits of the time were modest and made of practical materials. Little jewelry and few other accessories were used. Certain aspects of traditional mourning were still followed, such as the use of jet beading, crepe trim, and widows' caps. However, the hemlines fell above the ankle, the veil was used to frame the face instead of cover it, and the v-neckline left the chest and neck bare. During the following decades, gradually the rules were relaxed further and it became acceptable for both sexes to dress in dark colors for up to a year after a death in the family.     

Divorce and Coparenting: A Qualitative Study on Family Mediation in Italy

This qualitative study intended to assess how intergenerational transformative family mediation is a resource in promoting and supporting coparenting during the transition of divorce. There were 2 goals: to assess parents’ perceptions of key topics of family mediation and to compare their perceptions concerning different moments of the intervention. Fifteen Italian parents were interviewed using an ad hoc semistructured interview. Data were analyzed using the textual analysis software T-LAB. Findings showed mediator, pragmatic aspects, and family relationships as the most salient aspects of mediation. Significant differences emerged among the beginning, the middle phase, and the end of this intervention.     

Untouchable cultures: memory,power and the construction of Dalit selfhood

In the context of the philosophical literature on multiculturalism, I argue in this article that models of cultural identity based entirely on the nonvoluntary possession of a set of cultural characteristics are seriously incomplete. In particular, such models cannot address the need, among some groups, to reconstruct, invent and imagine alternative positive identities as a result of historical injustice, and to fill in the content of ‘culture’ accordingly. As an illustrative case, I survey processes of identity construction among ‘Dalits’, members of former ‘untouchable’ and other lower caste communities in India, with a focus on the role of historical consciousness and existing power relations in the imagination of Dalit culture. Dalit strategies of identity negotiation reveal the understandable need, on the part of the members of this community in progress, to produce a cultural identity that makes sense, psychologically and politically, given who they cannot imagine themselves to be, due to the fact of historical oppression. My analysis does not merely target essentialism, nor is it meant to be deconstructive of identity claims. Rather, I highlight select elements within the negotiation of Dalit identity to illustrate (1) the relevance of real historical relations of discrimination and inequality to the construction of culture; (2) the equivocal character of ‘choice’ within this process; and (3) the emancipatory possibilities provided by imagined narratives of cultural selfhood.     

A research note on male‐female differentials in the experience of heterosexual love

Debate regarding the morality of abortion has ranged from expressions of concern for the fetus by anti‐abortionists to assertions by those favoring legalized abortion that women should control their own bodies. The present research explored the possibility that the social acceptability of the sexual relationship and the extent of contraceptive conscientiousness of an abortion applicant influences favorability of response toward abortion. After responding to a measure of attitudes toward premarital contraceptive use, 40 college students read 10 brief case histories of young unmarried women who were purportedly requesting abortion. As hypothesized, participants' support for abortion was influenced by the source of contraceptive failure (method vs. personal), kind of contraceptive (artificial vs. natural), and kind of sexual relationship (steady vs. casual). Results were discussed in terms of the possibility that observers may wish to restore justice by giving greater support for abortion for conscientious contraceptive users involved in socially approved sexual relationships than for careless contraceptive users whose involvements are more casual. It was suggested that societal attitudes toward contraception for unmarried persons may interact with the reality of the prevalence of premarital sexual activity to increase the premarital pregnancy rate.     

The contribution of media consumption to civic participation

A national UK survey (N = 1017) examined the association between media consumption and three indicators of civic participation - likelihood of voting, interest in politics, and actions taken in response to a public issue of concern to the respondent. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the variance explained by media use variables after first controlling for demographic, social and political predictors of each indicator of participation. Media use significantly added to explaining variance in civic participation as follows. In accounting for voting, demographic and political/social factors mattered, but so too did some media habits (listening to the radio and engagement with the news). Interest in politics was accounted for by political/social factors and by media use, especially higher news engagement and lower media trust. However, taking action on an issue of concern was accounted for only by political/social factors, with the exception that slightly fewer actions were taken by those who watched more television. These findings provided little support for the media malaise thesis, and instead were interpreted as providing qualified support for the cognitive/motivational theory of news as a means of engaging the public.     

Return to work with chronic low back pain: using an evidence-based approach along with the occupational therapy framework

This paper will attempt to apply the occupational therapy framework [1] along with an evidence-based approach and an occupation-based intervention with a population of workers with chronic low back pain (CLBP) to help them return to work and maintain their work status. This paper will focus primarily on those clients with CLBP who still have a link to their employment but who do not perceive themselves as being capable to go back to their job despite conflicting opinions from other stakeholders (primary health care professionals, employer or insurer). They are being evaluated in occupational therapy shortly before return to work and followed until their optimal functional capacities are reached. This means that either all functional goals related to the actual physical demands of their job have been reached or that further treatment does not result in functional improvement.     

An assessment of soil nematode food webs and nutrient pools in community gardens and vacant lots in two post-industrial American cities

In the midst of the current economic crisis, there is renewed interest in transforming vacant lots into food-producing gardens. This study analyzed whether vacant lots are suitable for food production, by comparing the soil nematode food webs and nutrient pools of vacant lots and community gardens in two post-industrial U.S. cities, Akron and Cleveland, Ohio. Twelve vacant lots and 12 community gardens were examined in the two cities. All six Akron community gardens were established just prior to the initiation of this study, whereas the six in Cleveland were 15–30 years old. Soil pH, texture, moisture, organic matter, mineral nitrogen content, microbial biomass, and nematode communities were measured in both cities. Soil decomposition rate was also measured in Cleveland. Results show that the soils of vacant lots surpassed those of the newly-established Akron gardens and were equal to the soils of the well-established Cleveland gardens in the amount of ammonium-nitrogen, total nematode population, genus diversity, and maturity and structure indices. The soils of the vacant lots were lower than the community gardens in the amounts of soil moisture, organic matter, and nitrate-nitrogen, which we associate with the addition of water, compost, fertilizer, and tilling in the gardens. No significant difference was found between community gardens and vacant lots in microbial biomass, decomposition rate, or nematode enrichment index, which seems to indicate that vacant lots are equal to community gardens in nutrient availability and nutrient cycling. We conclude that barring any contamination, the soil in vacant lots maybe suitable for the establishment of food gardens, which can provide many desirable ecosystem services and enhance human well-being. We also find that the disturbance associated with tillage and conversion of a vacant lot into a community garden has short-term ramifications for both nematode food webs and mineral-nitrogen content.     

Nourishing the Social Innovation Debate with the “Social Technology” South American Research Tradition

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Inspired by the South American research tradition known as “social technology,” this article proposes an...     

On convergence of properly weighted samples to the target distribution

We consider importance sampling as well as other properly weighted samples with respect to a target distribution π$\pi$ from a different point of view. By considering the associated weights as sojourn times until the next jump, we define appropriate jump processes. When the original sample sequence forms an ergodic Markov chain, the associated jump process is an ergodic semi-Markov process with stationary distribution π$\pi$. In this respect, properly weighted samples behave very similarly to standard Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) schemes in that they exhibit convergence to the target distribution as well. Indeed, some standard MCMC procedures like the Metropolis–Hastings algorithm are included in this context. Moreover, when the samples are independent and the mean weight is bounded above, we describe a slight modification in order to achieve exact (weighted) samples from the target distribution.     

Editorial

This article compares the outcomes of the 1996 and 2001 research selectivity exercises in respect of their impact upon the discipline of social work in the United Kingdom. Material in respect of the 1996 RAE is principally derived from the study by Lyons and Orme; in respect of the 2001 RAE the material is derived from the study conducted by Salford Centre for Social Work Research. Key findings of the comparison between the RAE 1996 and 2001 reveal the continuation of an upward drift in gradings; that pre‐1992 universities have improved their position by achieving higher results; and a reduction in the gap between pre‐ and post‐1992 universities. The findings also suggest that institutions have become better players of the RAE ‘game’. There is also evidence of an increased dissatisfaction with the RAE process and outcome between the two RAE exercises.