Paradigms,Theories, and Methods in Contemporary Rural Sociology: A Critical Reaction to Critical Questions

Abstract The content analysis by Falk and Zhao (1989) of theoretical orientations shown in Rural Sociology articles during the span 1976–1985 is critically evaluated as to its methodological adequacy and substantive conclusions. The former is shown as suspect and, therefore, the latter become moot. Discussion is particularly focused on the elaboration by Falk and Zhao on the wisdom of the metatheoretical underpinnings of the field in the decade explored. While they are less critical in judgment of rural sociology's performance than was the earlier study being “replicated” (Picou et al. 1978a), the assertion made by Falk and Zhao is still fundamentally misdirected. Until rural sociology faces the issue of data quality, its improvements in “theory” activity will not be substantial.     

Do People with a Mental Handicap Have Rights?

The notion of 'rights' in relation to people with a mental handicap has become increasingly fashionable in policy statements in Britain and elsewhere. However, the concept has rarely been used in a clear way, and the application of it has been weak. This article distinguishes between 'claim rights' and 'moral rights' and relates each to specific discriminatory domains. It is argued that in Britain, people with a mental handicap are routinely denied both types of rights, and that this is a sobering context within which to set policies structured upon 'normalisation' principles. It is suggested that more conceptual analysis is needed, alongside a clearer commitment to enforcement through a code of practice and the application of adult rights.     

Access and Child Contact Centres in England and Wales: An Ethnographic Perspective

SUMMARY. Access centres are a recent development in service provision for families facing difficulties over child contact following divorce or separation. The author has worked for over two years as a volunteer at an access centre and provides a personal view of key issues in the organisation and operation of access centres. Discussion of detailed case material throws light on the paradoxes which arise when a pro-access ideology is exercised in an informal setting.     

Social Enterprises as Hybrid Organizations: A Review and Research Agenda

The impacts of the global economic crisis of 2008, the intractable problems of persistent poverty and environmental change have focused attention on organizations that combine enterprise with an embedded social purpose. Scholarly interest in social enterprise (SE) has progressed beyond the early focus on definitions and context to investigate their management and performance. From a review of the SE literature, the authors identify hybridity, the pursuit of the dual mission of financial sustainability and social purpose, as the defining characteristic of SEs. They assess the impact of hybridity on the management of the SE mission, financial resource acquisition and human resource mobilization, and present a framework for understanding the tensions and trade‐offs resulting from hybridity. By examining the influence of dual mission and conflicting institutional logics on SE management the authors suggest future research directions for theory development for SE and hybrid organizations more generally.     

Compounding the trauma: the coercive treatment of voice hearers

For more than a hundred years, voice hearing has been treated as a symptom of serious mental illnesses with biological origins. Pharmaceutical companies have expanded the range of products targeted at treating these illnesses and the diagnosis of schizophrenia now underpins a multi-billion dollar, world-wide business. Throughout the western world, nation states have vested an authority in psychiatry to compulsorily treat people who meet a set of diagnostic criteria that is widely discredited. There is considerable evidence that more effective ways of responding to people experiencing psychosis can be provided without coercion. These approaches differ in essence to traditional Kraepelinian psychiatry in that they acknowledge the role of people's life experiences in creating the problems they face, and the professionals work in partnership with the service users. The approaches recognise that people have histories which often include considerable trauma and social workers are in an ideal position to work with voice hearers to help them understand their experiences and to develop ways of coping. The authority vested in psychiatry is not static and within Europe mental health professionals can contribute to changing what is meant by ‘unsound mind’ and extending the right of liberty to voice hearers. In doing this, social workers can ensure that they do not compound the trauma by devaluing and discrediting people's experience.     

Acting ethically,responding culturally: framing the new reproductive and genetic technologies in Sri Lanka

The spread of new reproductive and genetic technologies to the developing world stimulates reflection on the ethical issues they generate. The ‘built-in-ness’ of assumptions about personhood and relationality within these technologies means that local professionals must, perforce, engage with attempts to make sense of new technology with reference to local meanings and traditions or take positions which reject them. This paper explores such attempts to indigenise bioethics in contemporary Sri Lanka with reference to ethical/ cultural conflicts surrounding two practices: donor insemination and consanguinity counselling. The former is discussed in relation to the now defunct practice of polyandry and the latter in relation to matrilateral cross-cousin marriage. The final discussion takes up the consequences of this detailed parsing of local relationality for the larger project of rendering bioethics in some sense comparative.