“There Was No Money Left to Save”: Financial Literacy and the Lives of Low-Income People

Despite the popularity of financial literacy programs intended to benefit low-income families, little research explores how families experience and interpret their own participation in these programs. In-depth interviews with participants in one such program revealed participants’ complex analyses of financial literacy and their own poverty. Their analyses simultaneously affirm and challenge hegemonic ideologies and neoliberal practices and, as such, provide an opportunity for social workers to respond in ways that address not only the immediate financial needs of low-income families but also the structures and ideologies that contribute to those needs.     

Force of Circumstance: Feminist Discourse in a Matrilineal Society

The present paper discusses some of the ways feminist discourse was articulated on Bougainville both during and after the secessionist war that took place on the island between 1989 and 2000. Inspired by feminist discourse, non-governmental organisations have reconfigured Bougainvillean women into newly organised spheres of influence (as moral agents, peacemakers or victims) that potentially distort the matrilineal structure of their society, which is the true source of the women's power and authority. Gender mainstreaming has become a major platform for social and political change managed by outside agencies in what is now the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. The present paper engages with current feminist debate that challenges the universal application of the concept of gender and gender mainstreaming, and especially considers the indigenous African critique in relation to matrilineal societies.     

Learned Mothering: Raising a Child with ADHD

This is a report of the findings of an exploratory research study, using the qualitative method of Grounded Theory, of the experience of 25 mothers of children with Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). These mothers have been encumbered with great responsibilities caring for and managing their ADHD children, but little has been written that addresses their experience and their need for understanding and support. Because their children experience the world in highly idiosyncratic ways, the mothers need to learn to parent their children accordingly and not depend on the empathic responsiveness that comes intuitively with normal children. Discussion of theoretical and clinical issues should prove helpful to social workers and other clinicians.     

The Ethics of the Child Custody Process: Are the American Law Institute’s Guidelines the Answer?

Our principal ethical concern is that children have greatly differing opportunities to have their developmental needs addressed in the custody process. We illustrate this variation with example cases in five different adult contexts: custodial parent, relocates; natural father disputes an adoption; gay parents break up; “psychological parents” come forward to claim custody or visitation; and the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 is invoked and may disrupt a placement. We acknowledge and then evaluate in relation to our cases, the recent guidelines for custody issued by the American Law Institute (Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution: Analysis and Recommendations, 2002). Our recommendations for an ethical process include making the child a legal player.Eleanor Willemsen, Rebecca Andrews and Bethany Karlin are affiliated with Department of Psychology, Santa Clara University. Rebecca Andrews is now at Syracuse University Law School.Address correspondence to Eleanor Willemsen, Department of Psychology, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053; e-mail: ewillemsen @scu.edu. This research was supported by a grant from the Bannan Center for Jesuit Education of Santa Clara University. We wish to acknowledge Bree Nakashima for her assistance with our legal research.     

Theory and reality in the vision of Adriano Olivetti

This article describes and analyses the ideas and activities of the Italian industrialist, Adriano Olivetti (1901–1960). Although by most interpretations of the term philanthropy, Olivetti would be considered a philanthropist, Italians have not viewed him in that way, and outside of Italy his philanthropic work has not received the attention it deserves. In this article the theory and praxis of Adriano Olivetti are analysed in order to shed light on two significant issues in the study of philanthropy generally: first, the basic problem of the applicability of the concept in different cultural contexts; and second, a related question about the borderlines between philanthropic, third sector activities and political activities, and how these borders may shift or even disappear under certain conditions of time and place.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Third International Conference of Research on Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations cosponsored by Independent Sector and the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, Indianapolis, March, 1992. The author wishes to express appreciation for the support provided for this research by the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy and the Research Council of Rutgers University.     

The social composition of the Communist nomenklatura: A comparison of Russia,Poland, and Hungary

Conclusion Reflecting, in conclusion, upon the significance of our inquiry into the social origins of the nomenklatura, we suggest that the main reason the term nomenklatura remains a loaded one in East European political discourse is that it raises the question of what the Communist period in East Europe meant, and what it might mean now. Was Communism an artificial break in the organic history of these societies, a history that now resumes? Or, were Communist institutions deeply embedded in the social logic of East European development in ways that mean the Communist legacy will endure into postcommunism? Our usage of the term upper class was calculated precisely to capture this notion of embeddedness. We argue that in some East European countries, most notably Russia, and probably Hungary as well, where the Communist elite became an organic component of the emerging social order as an upper class, it is not enough to ask if the Communistelites have reproduced or circulated. Whether an upper class existed, and to what degree, forms the class context of personnel changes: a lot of circulation at the individual level, for example, may mean nothing but the reproduction of privileges and advantages institutionalized during the Communist period via the upper class. Reproduction on the individual level, on the other hand, may indicate precisely the opposite; that an upper class did not form and therefore nomenklatura members were unable to enjoy such institutionalized mechanisms during the transition to postcommunism. To put it in the language of our introduction: to answer the question of whether the Communists are still in power, one has first to determine what kind of a social order Communism was in each country. It was these different social orders, comprising concrete groups and group identities, as distinct from the mechanisms of surplus allocation or the individuals who staffed them, which may have been left intact through the post-Communist transition.     

Quasi-experimental evaluation of a national primary school HIV intervention in Kenya

This study examined the impact of a primary-school HIV education initiative on the knowledge, self-efficacy and sexual and condom use activities of upper primary-school pupils in Kenya. A quasi-experimental mixed qualitative-quantitative pre- and 18-month post-design using 40 intervention and 40 matched control schools demonstrated significant program impact on targeted objectives of (1) adequate program delivery and, for standard 6 and 7 pupils (ages 11-16 years), (2) increased HIV-related knowledge; (3) increased communication with parents and teachers about HIV and sexuality; (4) increased assistance to fellow pupils to avoid sexual activity; (5) increased self-efficacy related to abstinence and condom use; (6) decreased exposure to HIV through delayed first intercourse, decreased sexual activity and increased condom. Results support the conclusions that the existing infrastructure is adequate for national roll-out of the program; that the program has its most beneficial effect on sexually inexperienced youth and should therefore be implemented with the youngest age groups possible; and that gains are gender specific, with boys reporting increased condom use while girls are more likely to decrease or delay sexual activity. Based on these results, the program began national roll-out to all primary schools in 2005. By June 2006, the program was operating in 11,000 of the country's nearly 19,000 schools.     

Expanding the Domain of Festival Research: A Review and Research Agenda

Festivals are an important sub‐field within event studies which, until recently, have not been studied as separate experiences. A systematic review of the emerging literature on festivals reveals several key characteristics. While festivals are diverse in nature and geographical location, scholarly interest focuses on five main themes: the motivations for organizing, funding and attending festivals; the experiences of festival attendees; the relationship between festivals and their local environments; the economic and sociocultural impacts of festivals; and the management of festivals. Despite growing interest in festivals as research sites, little attention has been afforded to investigating festival processes. In particular, considerations of how festivals are established, and which individuals are involved in their initiation and regular staging, offer opportunities for research. This paper highlights the significant role festivals play within their local communities, including their facilitation of social cohesion and regional identity. Our study reveals that the literature rarely discusses the development of festivals over time and the wider networks in which festivals are embedded. This critical review of festival research identifies various research gaps and directions for future research to develop theory and practical understanding of festivals.     

The Golden Girls Live: residual television texts,participatory culture,and queering TV heritage through drag

The SF Golden Girls have been producing live performances of The Golden Girls episodes in drag since 2005, creating an iterative form of fan productivity that consistently resonates with San Francisco audiences. This essay considers the cultural significance of the SF Golden Girls’ live performances as a case study in how queer participatory culture can change the meanings of a residual media object. I argue that the participatory engagement between the audience members and the drag queen performers make The Golden Girls a collective and visible site of queer television heritage, and that producing The Golden Girls Live in drag also offers different logics of representation and engagement than television. These live performances are significant because The Golden Girls has become a symbol of television heritage, and performing episodes in drag explicitly queers a television program that has become a site of cultural memory and historical meaning. Additionally, these performances are staged in December as The Golden Girls: The Christmas Episodes, which restructures television heritage to create a new continuity between the past and present and construct a queered Christmas ritual that is familiar and imbued with historical consciousness.