Victoria Climbie Inquiry Data Corpus Project: Using the Delphi Method in Multidisciplinary Child Protection Research

This paper introduces the Delphi research method and analysesits usefulness in multi-agency research. In particular, theauthors examine how it was used in a project aimed at makingthe material generated by the Victoria Climbié Inquiryaccessible to child welfare/protection professionals throughorganizing the oral evidence in such a way that it can becomea web-based data corpus. The thematic analysis of research data-setsusually only reflects the theoretical and analytical ideas ofthe researchers; however, our research demonstrates that usingthe Delphi method incorporates thematic ideas both from researchersand from active professionals, thereby pooling expertise. Thuswe argue that the Delphi method represents a valuable tool inmultidisciplinary child welfare research as it embeds a breadthof expertise throughout the research process.     

Immigration and Entry into the Cultural Mainstream

This research focuses on the absorbing society, and examines a process by which immigrants entered and changed the cultural core of the absorbing society. It analyzes the development of an ethnic holiday, the traditional ethnic Mimouna holiday of North African immigrants in Israel, into a national holiday and into part of the dominant culture. The research concludes that this process evolved mainly as a result of the political activism of immigrants from North Africa and a weakening of the hegemony. It may also illuminate the sometimes crucial role of immigrants in moving the boundaries between the center and the periphery.     

Stepfather–Adolescent Relationship Quality During the First Year of Transitioning to a Stepfamily

This study contributes to the growing literature on factors associated with the formation of close relationships between stepfathers and stepchildren. The authors extend prior research by using nationally representative data from Add Health (N = 179) to examine how factors existing prior to stepfamily formation are associated with the quality of stepfather–adolescent ties within the first year after married stepfathers join the household. Results from structural equation models revealed that both the quality of the mother–adolescent relationship and adolescent adjustment prior to stepfamily formation were significantly associated with the perceived quality of adolescents' relationships with their stepfathers.     

New frontiers in qualitative longitudinal research: an agenda for research

This paper outlines the state of the art in qualitative longitudinal methodology, reflecting on more than 10 years of development since a previous special issue on qualitative longitudinal research was published by the International Journal of Social Research Methodology in 2003. The papers presented in this special issue emerge from a methodological innovation network that brought together an international community of researchers in order to map new frontiers for the method. This paper summarises the development of the method from a design to a sensibility, identifying three new frontiers as part of a future research agenda including: the need for a processual imaginary; experimentation with temporal perspectives and orientations and explicating the temporal affordances of our methods.     

Home Care Workers’ Skills in the Context of Task Shifting: Complexities in Care Work

Task shifting, which involves the transfer of care work from regulated health‐care professionals to home care workers (HCWs), is a strategy to ensure the efficient delivery of home care services in Canada and internationally. Using a feminist political economy approach, this paper explores the effects of task shifting on HCWs’ skills. Task shifting may be understood as a form of downward substitution—and an effort to increase control over workers while minimizing costs—as some of health‐care professionals’ responsibilities are divided into simpler tasks and transferred to HCWs. Our interviews with 46 home health‐care providers in Ontario, which focused explicitly on HCWs’ role in care provision, problematize the belief that “low skilled” care workers have little control over their work. HCWs’ skills become more complex when they do transferred tasks, and HCWs sometimes gain greater control over their work. This results in increased autonomy and mastery for many HCWs. In turn, this serves to reinforce the intrinsic rewards of care work, despite the fact that it is low paid and undervalued work. Le transfert des tâches consiste à transférer certaines activités des professionnels de la santé aux travailleurs de soutien à domicile, et s'avère être une stratégie visant à assurer la prestation efficace des services de soutien à domicile au Canada et à l'étranger. En utilisant la théorie de l'économie politique féministe, cet article explore l'impact du transfert des tâches sur les compétences des travailleurs de soutien à domicile. Le transfert des tâches peut être interprété comme une forme de substitution à la baisse avec un contrôle accru des travailleurs et une minimisation des coûts des services. Ceci se produit lorsque certaines des responsabilités des professionnels de la santé sont fragmentées en tâches plus simples pour être ensuite transférées aux travailleurs de soutien à domicile. Pourtant, le contenu de 46 entrevues avec des travailleurs de soutien à domicile et professionnels de la santé vient ébranler l'hypothèse selon laquelle les travailleurs de soutien à domicile «peu qualifiés» auraient peu de contrôle sur leurs tâches de travail. Les résultats de cette étude suggèrent que les compétences des travailleurs de soutien à domicile se complexifient lorsqu'il s'agit de tâches transférées, et que ces travailleurs obtiennent parfois plus d'autonomie à l'emploi. Donc, les travailleurs de soutien à domicile acquièrent une plus grande autonomie et un contrôle plus significatif à l'emploi. Par conséquent, le transfert des tâches renforce les gratifications intrinsèques du travail en relation d'aide et ce, en dépit d'une piètre rémunération et de la sous‐valorisation du métier.     

What is the KKK a Case Of? Extreme Cases as Analytic Device

Social scientists frequently deploy extreme or rare cases as analytic devices to produce insight into broader social processes. Such a move requires that analysts understand what their object of inquiry is in fact “a case of.” Focusing on the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as one emblematic instance of an extreme case, this article considers the stakes associated with casing decisions around rare and extreme phenomena. Interrogating how the KKK has been understood as both an object of inquiry (i.e. a case) and a signal of broader social processes (i.e. a variable), the discussion emphasizes how to view the associated literature to more reflexively examine the KKK, as well as gain more global insight into the value and cautions associated with using extreme cases to produce generalizable conclusions.     

Longevity Among Hunter‐ Gatherers: A Cross‐Cultural Examination

Post‐reproductive longevity is a robust feature of human life and not only a recent phenomenon caused by improvements in sanitation, public health, and medical advances. We argue for an adaptive life span of 68‐78 years for modern Homo sapiens based on our analysis of mortality profiles obtained from small‐scale hunter‐gatherer and horticultural populations from around the world. We compare patterns of survivorship across the life span, rates of senescence, modal ages at adult death, and causes of death. We attempt to reconcile our results with those derived from paleodemographic studies that characterize prehistoric human lives as “nasty, brutish, and short,” and with observations of recent acculturation among contemporary subsistence populations. We integrate information on age‐specific dependency and resource production to help explain the adaptive utility of longevity in humans from an evolutionary perspective.     

Resilience among older caregivers in rural Namibia: The role of financial status,social support and health

Background: Namibia has one of the highest human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence rates and one of the highest rates of orphanhood in the world, and older caregivers provide much of the care to Namibians living with HIV and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) (UNAIDS, 2014). In this study, the authors explore how financial status, social support, and health were related to the resilience of caregivers caring for people affected by HIV and AIDS in rural northern Namibia, Africa. Method: Data were collected through a structured interview from (N = 147) caregivers from the Zambezi region. Results: Findings from this study show that employment and physical health were significantly associated with increased resilience in older caregivers. Discussion: Our findings point to the need for employment assistance and health services to improve the resilience of caregivers caring for people living with HIV and AIDS. We conclude that there is a need for more vigorous concerted efforts from public and private sector practitioners and policy makers to create more sustained formal employment opportunities and intervention programs aimed at improving the overall health of older HIV caregivers, especially those residing in rural HIV endemic communities in developing countries.