Understanding congressional foreign policy innovators: Mapping entrepreneurs and their strategies

Since World War II, a small group of assertive MCs have chosen to lead on foreign policy issues about which they care, without waiting on the administration to take action. Significant foreign policy innovation has been the result. From the coldest days of the Cold War to the changed circumstances after 9/11, important congressional initiatives attributable to a few key individuals can be found. Drawing on an original quantitative dataset of post-World War II congressional foreign policy activity, interviews with members and their staffs, and primary and secondary research, this paper: (a) discusses the characteristics and impact of these policymakers; (b) develops categories of entrepreneurs, drawn from issues to which entrepreneurs have devoted their attention; and (c) derives strategies of entrepreneurship drawn from the activities and avenues utilized by the entrepreneurs.     

Rural Mothers’ Use of Formal Programs and Informal Social Supports to Meet Family Food Needs: A Mixed Methods Study

Much of the research on low-income families, welfare, and self-sufficiency has focused on urban populations. Further, many of the studies on informal or social support available to and accessed by low-income families addressed needs such as childcare, transportation, money, or housing and did not focus on food issues. This paper focuses on how formal government food assistance programs and informal supports are utilized by rural low-income families as they work to meet their food needs. Drawing on interviews from the multi-state “Rural Families Speak” project, we examine food security in relation to the use of formal and informal supports. Additional analyses address how mothers view and describe their use of support to meet food needs.     

Elder Abuse and Oppression: Voices of Marginalized Elders

The voices of elderly people from marginalized groups are rarely solicited, and the relationship between elder maltreatment and belonging to an oppressed group has not been adequately investigated. This article reviews the literature on oppression and elder abuse and describes findings from the secondary analysis of data from focus group discussions on elder abuse held with marginalized older adults and (quasi)professionals caring for them in two Canadian cities. Participants identified that increased vulnerability to elder abuse was related to oppression experienced as a consequence of ageism, sexism, ableism/ disability, racism, heterosexism/homophobia, classism, and various intersecting types of oppression.     

Comment on Abrutyn’s “Time Crunch” Problem in Teaching Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory: Time for the Dichotomy to become a Trichotomy?

In “Teaching Sociological Theory for a New Century: Contending with the Time Crunch,” Abrutyn argues that it is time to re-think how sociological theory is taught in the university due to time constraints that make it increasingly difficult to cover the expanding canon of sociological theory. In this article I revisit Abrutyn’s position on the state of teaching sociological theory. I analyze sociological theory course syllabi across the discipline to provide further evidence that illustrates the problem of the time crunch. From this investigation I argue that the best strategy to deal with the “time crunch” is to re-think the way theory is taught and add an additional course to current curricula. Only by adding an additional course and trichotomizing the current classical and contemporary dichotomy can the time crunch be corrected.     

On the Need for an Anthropological Approach to Sport

Social relations of power are vital, embedded aspects of all sport. The Olympic credo of "Faster, Higher, Stronger" reflects the inherent ideological embodiment of power in sport. Sport, however, does not occur in a social vacuum, and therefore, who participates, and when, where, and how they participate, are all questions of socially embedded power critical to the study of sport. National states, across the entire ideological gamut, from fascist to Marxist, have tapped into the practices and symbolism of athletes and sport in order to aid in their legitimating discourses (Hoberman 1984). Yet the embedded power of sport is not limited to states and state-level societies, but is relevant to all societies. The relationships between sport and power extend from athletic bodies to social bodies in myriad, complex, intertwined patterns that penetrate and crosscut local specificities. This essay critically assesses recent contributions to the study of sport by suggesting how anthropological approaches to sport can complement existing sociological and historical perspectives within the burgeoning field of sport studies, while also making suggestions for other avenues of enquiry. With reference to four recent scholarly contributions, I will examine two general trends, globalization and sport and nationalism and sport that dominate the study of sport today. I also suggest ways in which these major themes incorporate perspectives on culture and power.     

Development and Validation of a Measure of Living Standards for Older People

Living standards are an effective way to assess socioeconomic status in relation to health but controversy remains about their assessment, particularly for older people. Sen’s capability framework shifts attention from material conditions to opportunities for choice enabled by material resources. To develop this promising approach, this paper reports on the development of a measure of living standards for older people based on Sen’s capability framework. Six living standards domains were established from thematic analysis of 143 interviews with people aged over 65 years in New Zealand. Questionnaire items were developed and tested to assess the extent to which older people had the freedom to pursue these domains. The 73 items were tested for face validity in interviews. Following this, a revised version was posted to 2,000 people aged over 65 years randomly selected from the New Zealand electoral roll and 1,064 completed questionnaires were returned. Item screening for response rates and spread reduced the items to 34. Confirmatory factor analysis of these 34 items suggested that the six theoretical domains were supported. Following model development, 25 items assessing the six domains were selected. Results to date show that this measure of living standards (LS-Cap) is a promising instrument to assess living standards as the freedom to access valued needs.     

The 100 Most Influential Contemporary Social Work Faculty as Assessed by the H-Index

The names of faculty employed by the 76 member social work programs of the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work were retrieved via a web-search. This resulted in a list of 2204 social work faculty. Their individual H-Indices were then obtained, using either the Publish or Perish software, or via manual calculations from Google Scholar. The top 100 most influential contemporary social work faculty were identified, resulting in a listing of individuals who have published relatively large numbers of scholarly works which themselves have been subsequently highly cited. Apart from recognizing these productive individuals, listing them and their home institutions will permit future researchers to examine the causes and correlates of high academic productivity.