Young,Effeminate, and Strange: Early Photographic Portraiture of Truman Capote

How did the young Truman Capote, a homosexual writer who closeted neither his person nor his writing, succeed amidst the homophobia and censorship of 1948? This paper examines how Capote vaulted himself into celebrity through a campaign of photographic self-representation that climaxed with the spectacular notoriety of the author photo of his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Capote's photographic portraits allowed him both to be recognized as gay and to be seen and discussed as nonspecifically queer–as effeminate, childish, and strange–deviations less threatening than the bald assertion of sexual difference, although associated with homosexuality through the nexus of nonnormative masculinity. Capote thus both deflected and attracted attention to the homosexual contents of his work and person to best serve his career. His media manipulations offer a case study of how gay men could strategically harness the simultaneous currents of fascination and repulsion with nonnormative masculinity in postwar America.     

Infrastructure Privatisation: Oversold,Misunderstood and Inappropriate

Infrastructure privatisation aimed to finance capital investment and improve efficiency, but the results have been disappointing because of the mismatch between privatisation theory and the characteristics of infrastructure and utility projects in developing countries. This article reviews the evidence and seeks to explain the results in terms of the high capital costs and low revenues that have necessitated public financing and risk‐sharing, diluting private incentives and requiring regulation. However, it argues that the emphasis on strengthening weak regulatory capacities in poor countries is misplaced, because these are the outcome of the development process, and are constrained by technical capacities, informational problems and the resources available. In this context, infrastructure privatisation is argued to be inappropriate for developing countries.     

“I'm still raring to go”: Successful aging among lesbian,gay, bisexual,and transgender older adults

While we know that minority status differentiates the experience of aging, little research has been done to examine the ways in which patterns of successful aging may differ in diverse subgroups of older adults. In this exploratory study, we investigated and described experiences of successful aging in a sample of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) older adults. Directed by a community-based participatory research process, we conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 22 LGBT adults, age 60 and older. We took an inductive, grounded theory approach to analyze the taped and transcribed interviews. We coded respondent experiences in four domains: physical health, mental health, emotional state and social engagement. Four gradations of successful aging emerged. Very few in our sample met the bar for “traditional success” characterized by the absence of problems in all four domains of health. Most of the sample was coping to a degree with problems and was categorized in one of two gradations on a continuum of successful aging: “surviving and thriving” and “working at it.” A small number was “ailing”: not coping well with problems. Some of the experiences that respondents described were related to LGBT status; others were related to more general processes of aging. The research suggests that a successful aging framework that is modified to include coping can better describe the experiences of LGBT older adults. The modified conceptual model outlined here may be useful in future research on this population, as well as more broadly for diverse populations of adults, and may be adapted for use in practice to assess and improve health and well-being.     

Latino Immigrants in a New Destination State: A Qualitative Study of Provider Experiences

ABSTRACT

Latino immigrants are settling in new destination states that have fewer culturally and linguistically competent health and social service providers. Social workers are in an ideal position to serve Latino immigrants. Yet, limited literature is available on the strengths and needs of this population specific to new destination states. To help fill this gap, qualitative data were gathered in individual interviews with providers serving Latino immigrants in one new destination state. Key themes emerged from the data, suggesting the importance of family and community, the challenges of immigration-related stressors, and the strengths and gaps in service provision. Implications for practice and social work education are presented.     

Psychosocial Capacity Building in New York: Building Resiliency with Construction Workers Assigned to Ground Zero after 9/11

Construction workers who worked on “Ground Zero” after 9/11 in New York City were exposed to stressful and traumatic conditions. Clinicians, trade union leaders and the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations designed a psychosocial capacity-building project which helped workers to recognize, understand and respond to their reactions through a series of interventions that included peer training, psychosocial workshops, brochures, and outreach and referral services. The project emphasized the use of mutual aid and social support through group interventions facilitated by clinicians and offered by trade unions. The article describes the planning and implementation of the project as well as the results of qualitative evaluations of the effectiveness of the project.     

Young maternal age and low birth weight risk: An exploration of racial/ethnic disparities in the birth outcomes of mothers in the United States

This study considers how low birth weight (LBW) prevalence varies by race/ethnicity and maternal age and explores mechanisms that explain disparities. Results show that maternal age patterns in LBW risk for African Americans differ from Whites and foreign- and U.S.-born Hispanics. Background socioeconomic disadvantage, together with current socioeconomic status and smoking during pregnancy, explain almost all of the LBW disparity between white teenage mothers and their older counterparts. These findings suggest that social disadvantage is a primary driver in unfavorable birth outcomes among white teenage mothers compared to older white mothers. Alternatively, background disadvantage and other social characteristics explain very little of the LBW disparities among African Americans and U.S.- and foreign-born Hispanics. Overall, these results indicate LBW disparities by maternal age are a complex product of socioeconomic disadvantage and current social and behavioral factors, such that LBW risk does not operate uniformly by race/ethnicity or maternal age.     

Changing the face of emergency medicine

Discover how one hospital in Salt Lake City nearly eliminated patient waiting time in its emergency department and the department essentially became the front door to the hospital.