Creating Tactile Space during a University Extension Field Day Event: The Case of a Sustainable Agriculture Innovation

Drawing on the concept of “tactile space,” we evaluate the experiential learning environment of a university extension field day event focused on a sustainable agriculture innovation: biodegradable plastic mulch. Introduced by sociologist Michael Carolan, “tactile spaces” are sensuously rich learning environments where participants interact with each other and the environment in an “embodied” and “embedded” manner leading to long‐lasting attitudinal and behavioral change. In our study, farmers, extension professionals, crop consultants, and mulch manufacturers participated in a field day event designed to provide both embodied and embedded experiences in an effort to stimulate interest in biodegradable plastic mulch, an economically and environmentally sustainable alternative to polyethylene mulch. Field day participants engaged in hands‐on demonstrations preceded and followed by focus group sessions. Enhancing the learning environment in these ways improved the success of the field day event by encouraging practice‐based forms of learning, which supplemented and reinforced the claims made about biodegradable plastic mulch. However, the tactile space could have been enriched by providing more opportunities for participants to become embedded within the environment, and by adding elements to overcome the temporal limitations of the field day event. This research contributes to the broader literature on participatory research and extension.     

Johnson's Differentiation Theory: Is It Really Empirically Supported?

Michael Johnson's differentiation of “types” of domestic violence has had a significant impact on courts and providers, in part because of its claim to an empirical basis. Unfortunately, the label “situational couple violence” has already been used by judges and evaluators to minimize abuse claims in custody cases. Johnson's repeated assertion that SCV is the most common form of domestic violence reinforces the marginalizing of domestic violence. But what do his data actually show? Here Professor Meier takes a close look at the research Johnson relies on and finds that it fails to prove his thesis. Rather, the data suggest that Johnson has it exactly backward: Control-based abuse is probably far more common than “situational” domestic violence.     

Life Domain Satisfactions as Predictors of Overall Life Satisfaction Among Workers: Evidence from Chile

This article examines the subjective antecedents of life satisfaction of workers. Adopting a ‘bottom-up’ perspective, we assessed the unique influence that satisfaction with multiple life domains have on evaluative judgments of overall life satisfaction. Based on a nationwide sample of 530 Chilean workers, we simultaneously tested the effects of seven life domain satisfactions that have been consistently included in extant models of life satisfaction and subjective well-being. These were satisfaction with health, financial situation, social relationships, one’s self-worth, leisure-time, family, and work. Having controlled for age and gender, results showed that satisfaction with one’s financial situation was the dominant predictor of overall life satisfaction of workers, with a weight of .36. Satisfaction with family, work, and health had effects of .25, .14, and .14, respectively. Interestingly, satisfaction with one’s self-worth, leisure-time, and social relationships did not have statistically significant effects on life satisfaction, although the first two showed t values near the critical value.     

Out with Multiple Choice and In with Essays: A More Accurate Way to Measure Reading Comprehension

The certification test for English teachers in a certain state asked candidates to identify the name of the frog in Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." If students answered this question correctly and said, Dan'l Webster, does this mean that these students would be prepared for the teaching field? Conversely, if students answered this question incorrectly, does this mean they were ill - prepared for becoming teachers? Can such an irrelevant question really point to the knowledge and abilities of future teachers? Hardly, use of unimportant questioning such as this illustrates the main problem with using a multiple choice format when assessing students. Trivial items such as names of animals and other insignificant information are often given priority over their significance in the story simply because students are not able to demonstrate what they really know in narrative form (Smagorinsky, 2002).     

Ageism: A Review of Research and Policy Implications

The current literature on aging and ageism is summarized in support of a theoretical perspective that includes both the biological and the psychosocial components of these processes. Conceptual and methodological problems are identified in models that rely on a deficit approach to aging. We suggest that the biased responses of others foster older adults' stress-related emotional and hormonal responses—responses that may effectively reduce their social and cognitive competence. This negative feedback process ultimately acts in a stereotype-maintaining fashion. Implications are drawn for possible changes in social policy and institutional practices that may reduce or prevent the harmful effects of ageism. Examples are given of existing policies and practices that limit the lives of older adults (in the guise of protection), along with newly instituted policies and practices (including those at an international level) that place the welfare of older adults in the context of life course issues shared by all.     

Introducing audio-vision into evidence: the impact of audio recordings and their technical limitations in police use of force cases

ABSTRACT

This article explores the technical limitations of audio recordings and how those limitations impact the reliability of sound evidence in police use of force cases. In audiovisual recordings, audio is often assumed neutral, redundant or to have the same limitations as its visual counterpart. Bringing together film theorist Michel Chion’s concept of audio-vision and the technical specifications of mobile audio recording, this article highlights how design priorities and compression processes can influence the way sound evidence is perceived. By failing to acknowledge audio recordings as distinct from their visual counterparts, they are rendered invisible and are therefore under scrutinized throughout legal processes. This neglect becomes notably problematic in cases of police use of force where audio/visual recordings often work to bolster the already privileged officer testimony.     

Social Work: Gender, Care and Justice

Correspondence to: Joan Orme, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, Lilybank House, Bute Gardens, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8RT, UK. Summary This article, in examining gender and justice, seeks to examinethe relationship between feminist theory and social work. Specificallyit reviews writings on social work ethics and suggests thatlittle attention has been paid to feminist scholarship thatresonates with social work practice. Focusing primarily on communitycare, it demonstrates how debates within feminism have becomemore complex and have problematized understandings of both careand justice. It argues that for social work it is unhelpfulto dichotomize justice and care; we should aspire to just socialwork practice.     

Belonging and Wanting: Meanings of Social Class Background for Women's Constructions of their College Experiences

Data from 193 women who attended Smith College in the 1960s show that the women retrospectively represented college quite differently depending on their class background. Themes of both social segregation and academic unpreparedness were evident among the women from working- and middle-class families, while themes of a continuation of family tradition were evident among women from upper-class families. Interview data from seven women who graduated from Radcliffe in 1964 suggested that a sense of who belonged and who did not was keenly felt even by women from middle-class backgrounds, and was also noticed by women from upper-class backgrounds. It is noted that class plays a large role in constructing the markers that define "belongingness" on elite college campuses .     

Planning for technological innovation: Part II—investment in technological change in three major industries

In an article in the December 1977 issue the author described an analytical method to determine the reaction of British industry to the oil crisis. The purpose of this paper is to carry forward the discussion by examining and comparing circumstances in three British industries between 1963 and 1975.The paper aims first, to show how and why the cost structures of these three industries differ; second, to examine changes forced upon companies by inflation of earnings, statutory control of prices and the oil crisis; and finally to assess how far these congruent economic forces have impinged on tangible and intangible investment.The data used for this study were drawn from British and Canadian official statistics but, as described in Part 1, a new analytical technique was devised to give due weight to the full range of investment expenditure.