Environmental Justice and Social Power Rhetoric in the Moral Battle over Whaling*

This study examines the ideological battle between the Makah Indian Tribe and anti‐whaling activists over the Tribe's quest to resume its 2000‐year‐old tradition of hunting gray whales for traditional and ceremonial purposes. Through qualitative discourse analysis of 268 newspaper articles, this study analyzes the competing rhetoric surrounding the indigenous whaling issue and exposes fundamental differences in how the opposing campaigns frame their arguments. This study contributes to the literature on social movements and environmental justice in two primary ways. First, this article exposes the social power dynamics and experientially based assumptions inherent in the “framing contests” of competing social movements that comprised those from diverse racial, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Second, this article expands existing work in the field of environmental justice to include American Indian issues and concerns.     

Zusammenfassungen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Privatisation and economism: an investigation amongst 'producers' in two privatised public utilities in Britain

Both academic and political debate about the effects of privatisation upon employees in privatised companies has taken place in something of an empirical vacuum. In particular, there is a lack of systematic enquiries into the major privatised utilities. Despite the lack of evidence, a number of claims have been advanced, both about the impact of privatisation upon the political attitudes of employees, and about its effects on working conditions, worker motivation and behaviour. This paper presents the results of a survey of 442 employees in two privatised public utilities. It is divided into two parts, looking first at the more general social and political attitudes of these employees, then presenting their views on the impact of privatisation on the company they work for, and on their working lives. The findings reported here lend little support either to new right claims about privatisation's transformative powers or to the view that ‘for most people … privatisation will make very little difference at all’ (Saunders and Harris, 1990).     

HISTORICAL AND CURRENT FACTORS DISCRIMINATING SEXUALLY FUNCTIONAL FROM SEXUALLY DYSFUNCTIONAL MARRIED COUPLES*

Clinical literature has noted numerous past and current psychosocial factors characteristicof sexually dysfunctional individuals. However, there is almost no empirical documentation of factorsdiscriminating sexually functional from dysfunctional couples. The present study compared the responses of 94 clinical couples accepted for sex therapy with 110 nonclinical couples, selected from the same community. The couples were in their mid-30s, married an average of 12 years, middle income, rather well educated, and over 75% had at least one child. Individuals completed a 517-question Personal History Questionnaire (PHQ), and sex and marital defensiveness scales. The PHQ wasclinically and empirically developed, resulting in 54 internally consistent scales. Major analyses tested the discriminating power of past and current PHQ scales. The best discriminators were sexual functioning scales, historical and affective scales for women, and current and fantasy scales for men. Several surprising results appeared, including the importance of first coitus and the lack of importance of marital satisfaction, communication and sexual history scales. Four conclusionswere discussed relevant to the separation of sex and relationship satisfaction, the separation of sexualfunctioning and sexual satisfaction, and the differential impact of sexual problems on men and women.     

The Epileptic: A Study in Status-Role Relationships

The status-role of the epileptic in the United States and elsewhere is such that he is handicapped in gaining employment and education. In fact, it is not epilepsy per se which prevents epileptics from adequately participating in our society, but the beliefs about epilepsy. These beliefs have a long history and are derived from ancient and mythical sources. They have no validity in the light of medical advances made in this field over the past thirty years. Hence it is now necessary to give epileptics those educational and vocational opportunities which others have and of which epileptics have been unjustly deprived.     

Applying the transtheoretical model to female and male perpetrators of intimate partner violence: gender differences in stages and processes of change

The Transtheoretical Model has been recently applied to men seeking services at battering intervention and prevention programs (Eckhardt, Babcock, & Homack, 2004; Murphy & Baxter, 1997). This study considers whether women arrested for intimate partner violence differ from male perpetrators in terms of stages of change and processes of change. No gender differences were found regarding stage of change. In general, all individuals presenting for treatment were in the early stages of change. The use of various processes of change was strongly related to stage of change, with individuals in the more advanced stages of change using more behavioral and experiential strategies to become nonviolent. However, except for the use of social liberation strategies, there were no gender differences in the use of the various processes. These findings suggest that the Transtheoretical Model may apply to female perpetrators equally as well as to male perpetrators. Intervention programs designed for male batterers using the Transtheoretical Model may also be helpful in the treatment of women arrested for domestic violence.     

On the coefficient of variation for residence time distributions of some stochastic compartmental models

The study of residence time distributions is motivated by the desire to develop new practical tools for the statistical analysis of compartmental systems. In particular, Gibaldi and Perrier (1982) describe three alternative models for a two-compartment system, which were noted to be "indistinguishable based solely on plasma or urinary excretion data," defining a residence time distribution. In this paper, properties of the coefficient of variation of the residence time distributions are developed for these three models. In addition to the standard Markovian model with exponential retention times, properties are also derived for a non-Markovian model with gamma retention times. A coefficient of variation may be estimated from commonly available elimination data, and may be used in principle to discriminate between these three models.     

Redefining membership: restrictive rights and categorisation in European Union migration policy

This article analyses European Union (EU) policy-making on the rights of third-country nationals (TCN) against the backdrop of theoretical literature on the transformation of citizenship. The aim is to evaluate why and to which extent EU policy expands citizenship rights to TCNs, thus redefining the criteria for membership in the European polity. The research emphasises the role of norms and frames in policy-making and is based on secondary sources, primary documents and semi-structured interviews. The analysis reveals how the combination of a principled conflict over citizenship and a strategic conflict over competence led to a legal framework characterised by ‘restrictive rights’ and ‘politics of categorisation’. ‘Restrictive rights’ means that membership rights are granted to TCN in principle, but subject to very restrictive conditions. ‘The politics of categorisation’ refers to the political construction of migrant categories that are subject to different rights-regimes. Both phenomena have the ambiguous effect of enabling the expansion of rights to non-citizens while at the same time creating new lines of division and mechanisms of exclusion.     

Understanding parental leave experiences: connecting the dots with a multiple-methods approach

ABSTRACT

This research note draws selected findings from a multiple-methods study conducted in partnership with a large public-sector employer in Portland, OR to describe the added value of this approach for research translation. We focus on how our study of a newly implemented paid parental leave policy can translate to actionable steps for two important end-users: employers and policymakers. Using administrative records (N?=?579), a countywide employee survey (N?=?137 leave-takers) and focus groups (N?=?35), we describe how each data source contributes important and unique information about how the policy’s implementation affected diverse employees. We find gender differences in how employees changed leave-taking in response to the policy, and describe the critical but nuanced role that supervisors play. Working with employers and policymakers to develop and implement thoughtful policies will help to ensure equitable distribution of the benefits of paid leave policies.