Fields,networks and frames: advertising social organization in Japan

Abstract In this article I focus on three kinds of overlapping social coordinates — fields, networks and frames — as they are worked out in the day‐to‐day activities of a large Tokyo advertising agency. My aims are threefold. First, to show how the three social forms of fields, networks and frames interlock in a dialectical manner that permits both macro‐ and micro‐levels of sociological analysis. I thus present methodological approaches hitherto perceived to be different in emphases or interests as complementary rather than at odds with one another. Second, I take up and reexamine the notions of network and frame as developed within the specific context of Japanese social organization. Third, I make a statement in favour of anthropological studies of business as a means of understanding how industries and organizations function in a global economy.     

Social Support Networks of African-American Children Attending Head Start: A Longitudinal Investigation of Structural and Supportive Network Characteristics

This study examined the stability and coherence of African‐American children's social support networks. Participants included a total of 106 3‐ to 4‐year‐old children attending Head Start centers located in the southeast. Children completed a social network interview in two consecutive years at the Head Start centers. These interviews tapped multiple dimensions of the support network including social embeddedness, proportion of the network providing support, and perceived support. Analyses focused on both the rank‐order stability of children with respect to network characteristics as well as stability of network relationships (the same individuals included in the network at both time periods). Results indicated age‐related increases in network size for adult and child categories, network size across three support domains, proportion of support scores, and perceived support from adults. In addition to age‐related changes, analyses revealed considerable rank‐order stability with respect to structural network dimensions, but very little rank‐order stability in proportion of support and perceived support scores. In contrast, both structural and supportive components of the children's networks were shown to be coherent over a one‐year period when specific network member relationships were examined. Discussion highlights both continuities and discontinuities in young children's social networks, and how data obtained in this study contribute to theory building and the systematic examination of African‐American children's emerging social networks.     

AN ANALYSIS OF THE DEBATE ON INTERGENERATIONAL EQUITY AND FISCAL SUSTAINABILITY IN AUSTRALIA

The authorities in a number of advanced countries have produced intergenerational reports that seek to determine the fiscal sustainability of current policy parameters. The Australian government will publish its Intergenerational Report in May 2002. This paper attempts to place these reports in analytical perspective. We examine the notion of intergenerational equity, the conceptual basis for generational accounting, Australian efforts at constructing generational accounts, and then review the intergenerational reports of several other countries. The paper concludes with a brief synoptic discussion of various policies that can help Australian governments achieve intergenerational balance in future.     

The Anglican clergy and the early development of British sociology

The theoretical bias evident in histories of sociological thought and practice has tended to minimise some other important influences on its development. One such is the relationship between ‘Christian Sociology’ as articulated by the writers of such Church of England organisations as the Christian Social Union and the Christendom Group. A reading of the early journal publications of early twentieth century British sociology suggests an inter-relationship between the input of the Anglican clergy and the emergence of a scientific, university-based discipline. With particular reference to the sociological intentions of the 1924 Conference on Politics, Economics and Citizenship (COPEC) and to the writings of the Christian Sociologist, Maurice B. Reckitt, this article suggests that the view that the relationship between Christian and academic sociology can be interpreted simply as a ‘phase’ in sociological history does less than justice to the complexities of a neglected aspect of the professionalisation of the discipline.     

In the Right Place at The Right Time: An Interview with Brian Stagoll

Few in Australia have done more than Brian Stagoll to develop and critique a local family therapy within an international context, to define its political and intellectual challenges, and to give the field organisational substance. He has been at the centre of Australian family therapy for more than two decades, as both creator and iconoclast. Brian is a psychiatrist who has always pursued social justice and community health initiatives along with a busy life as a therapist, and is a keen reader of history, politics, philosophy and literature. He was a co‐founder of our annual conferences. He co‐founded and organised the Williams Road Summer Schools in the 1980s. He was a co‐founder of this journal, its first Associate Editor and book review editor. He has contributed some of our most significant papers, as well as publishing elsewhere nationally and internationally. He was influential as a Board member and later as President. He is an Honorary Life Member of VAFT, which he co‐founded, and in 2001 he received — in his home city of Melbourne — the Journal Award for outstanding contributions to family therapy.     

The age of exploration and exploitation: Younger-looking leaders endorsed for change and older-looking leaders endorsed for stability

The current contribution extends theorizing on leadership and the exploration–exploitation dilemma using an evolutionary perspective. A theoretical connection is made between the exploration–exploitation dilemma and age-biased leadership preferences for exploratory change versus stable exploitation. For the majority of human evolution our species was semi- or entirely nomadic and the trade-off between exploration versus exploitation had substantial physical- and experience-based requirements which align with leadership opportunities as moderated by age. Thus, given the consistency and importance of correctly assigning leadership for the exploration–exploitation dilemma, human evolution has likely selected for age-biased leadership endorsement. Across three experiments we find that younger-looking leaders are endorsed for times of exploratory change and older-looking leaders for stable exploitation. Further, our results indicated that older leaders are endorsed for leading conservative exploitation of nonrenewable resources and younger leaders for exploration of renewable alternatives (i.e., green leadership). The results introduce an age-biased leadership endorsement hypothesis.