Moving towards hybridity in causal explanation: The example of citizen participation

The puzzle of causal explanation is a core issue for social science. Searches for causal patterns can be overly mechanistic, seen for example in the desire for the magic bullet in policy, or the lionising of the celebrity policy interventions of the moment. Emphasis in policy interventions on transferable practice is often dismissed as naive for failing to recognise the importance of context, contingency, and complexity. However, a focus on highly context‐specific narratives, drawn from single cases, can be equally problematic and exacerbate rather than help the problem of reification of knowledge. This paper makes a reflective theoretical contribution to the debate on the need to tackle the dilemma of contingency versus certainty in causal explanation in the social sciences. It attempts to address this issue through the lens of a specific concrete puzzle of explanation; that of citizen participation in policy. Citizen participation is a salient policy topic, which demands a thorough understanding of causation. Using extended empirical examples of citizen participation in policy serves to highlight the intractability of different traditions of causal explanation and grounds the need for greater compatibility in approaches. The paper then offers two propositions centring on the notions of transdisciplinarity and hybridity in research practices and methodologies. It concludes with a discussion of more and less desirable forms of hybridity.     

Children with developmental disabilities in the child welfare system: a national survey

A survey of state agencies responsible for developmental disabilities/mental retardation and child welfare investigated the coordination of services for children with developmental disabilities. Recommendations are offered with regard to further research and model program development.     

Educators sans frontières? Borders and power geometries in transnational education

ABSTRACT

Education work denotes a relational encounter among individuals positioned along axes of intersecting differences. Transnational education (TNE) offers a particularly intriguing context for conceptualising borders and power relation in knowledge production. Drawing upon empirical work conducted in the UK and Hong Kong, this paper interrogates the notion of border in TNE and analyses how ‘flying faculty’ involved in UK TNE programmes in Hong Kong perceive, manage and experience socio-cultural, institutional and other borders. We contextualise the personal experiences of these ‘educators sans frontières’ in the broader power geometries in which they are embedded. Our findings reveal the presence and strength of diverse borders in the TNE field. These borders are contexts of control and capital accumulation, where existing power relation is being negotiated and contested on a daily basis. We also highlight the rapidly changing power geometries in the field marked by the rise of the new powers, like Hong Kong, in the international higher education system. The paper ends by calling for more appreciation and efforts in harnessing the generative and creative potential of borders. Exploring borders as contexts of exchanges and co-production would contribute to more equitable partnerships among diverse stakeholders in the expanding TNE sector.     

Providing Care for Persons with Dementia in Rural Communities: Informal Caregivers’ Perceptions of Supports and Services

Dementia is one of the costliest and most time-consuming diseases among older persons. Although informal caregivers provide the majority of care for persons with dementia, little is known about the self-perceived need for social services of caregivers of persons with dementia within rural areas. This pilot study examined the knowledge, access and intent of the practice-oriented service model of caregivers of persons with dementia in rural communities in the Midwest U.S. After a systematic training, researchers interviewed 11 rural caregivers of persons with dementia (n = 11). Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Although similarities with other caregivers of persons with dementia were found, important differences suggesting unique issues among these rural caregivers of persons with dementia. Many participants found strength in their community, which often served as a safety net of support. Consistent with existing literature, participants expressed financial concerns, geographic barriers and lack of dementia-specific services when using formal services. The need for more specialized formal services in rural areas to supplement existing informal care networks is discussed. Policies and services based on rural caregivers’ unique concerns and challenges and that build upon their existing care networks are recommended.     

Pesticide exposure and sprayer's task goals: comparison between vineyards and greenhouses

Plant protection products are used in agriculture to improve yields, but this use can cause contamination of the environment and is also likely to have adverse short and long term effects on agricultural workers. The field study took place in greenhouses and vineyards where operators are involved in high levels of pesticide spraying. The objective of this intervention was to identify factors explaining the influence of task factors on the exposure of greenhouse growers and vineyard workers. Thirteen operators were selected for detailed observations during one session of spraying. Video recordings provide counts of physical contacts between the operator and all the surrounding surfaces during the spraying operation. Both in vineyards and in greenhouses, physical and temporal constraints are the predominant factors in establishing a specific spraying procedure. Every action taken by the operator is a result of a compromise between safety, task performance and quality.     

The Economic Impacts of a Terrorist Attack on the U.S. Commercial Aviation System

We use data on air passenger travel expenditures per passenger as well as statistical analysis of the air traffic lost for the two-year aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks to estimate direct demand losses for air transportation services. These are used along with a national input-output model to assess the full costs of these losses. Depending on assumptions made, the full losses to the U.S. economy were between $214.3 and $420.5 billion. These estimates are similar to those from other studies of such an event, and suggest that the high costs of effective countermeasures may be justified.     

Person Recognition from Dynamic Events: The Kinematic Specification of Individual Identity in Walking Style

Three experiments used Johanssons [Perception and Psychophysics, 14, 201–211 (1973)] point-light technique to investigate, whether observers could correctly recognize others from their natural and deceptive walking styles based solely on the kinematic pattern produced when walking. Participants watched pairs of video-clips of unknown young male actors and judged whether the video-clips in each pair were from the same actor or not. The pairs of video-clips consisted of one clip of an actor walking naturally across a room and one clip of an actor attempting to walk deceptively (attempting to make themselves appear considerably older than they actually were). The results from Experiments 1a and 1b demonstrated that participants were fairly accurate at recognizing when the actors in the two video-clips were the same and when they were different. In addition, an invariant of walking style (weight shift) was shown to be an important kinematic feature for the identification of walkers. Experiment 2 demonstrated that those walkers whose weight shift differed between their natural and their deceptive walk were more effective in deceiving observers about their true identity than those whose weight shift was the same in the two walks. The results are discussed in relation to the kinematic specification of identity, and the production and perception of deceptive intent.Experiment 1 was completed as partial fulfillment of the requirements for Part 1 of an MSc (Hons) by the first author. This research was conducted with the financial assistance of University of Canterbury Research Committee Grant #U6279. Thanks are extended to Dean Owen, Rebekah Gunns & Kerry Marsh for their insightful comments.     

Why do “Women’s jobs” have low pay for their educational level?

Jobs held largely by women have low pay for the amount of education they require. Why is this? One hypothesis is that employers prefer to hire men, and all workers prefer better jobs, so that women can get in only when a job's rewards (relative to its skill requirements) are low enough that men no longer want the job. Thus, wages affect sex composition. Others see the causal arrow to run the other way. In this view, the sex composition of jobs affects the wage that employers offer; employers' biased perceptions lead them to see jobs as less important and less payworthy if they are filled largely by women. These explanations are not mutually exclusive; the causal arrow may run both ways (or neither way). In this paper we use CPS data from 1984 to 1991 and a cross-lag panel model to examine these effects. Jobs are defined with a detailed occupational category within a specific broad industry category. We find that jobs with a higher percentage of females at one point have slower wage growth (or steeper wage decline) for both men and women in the ensuing years. But we find no effect of earlier wage rate on later sex composition. For those interested in reducing gender inequality in earnings, these findings suggest the utility of “comparable worth” policies.     

Forensic sociology: Some cautions and recommendations

This paper uses a research experience involving change-of-venue research and jury work in a mass murder case as a vehicle for discussing a number of problem areas in forensic sociology. Included are discussions of time pressures, secrecy, special methodological problems, and the issue of researcher privilege and dealing with subpoenas. A number of recommendations are made to those planning to become involved in forensic sociology, including having access to legal counsel and special precautions to protect confidential sources. James T. Richardson, a professor of sociology at the University of Nevada-Reno, recently graduated from the Nevada School of Law and passed the Nevada Bar exam. He is a founder of Litigation Technologies, Inc., and is a co-owner of Market Systems Research, Inc. K. Gregory Swain and Jeffrey Codega are co-owners of Market Systems Research, Inc. and of Litigation Technologies, Inc. Kenneth Bazzell is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Nevada-Reno.