Knowledge and Women's Interests: Issues of Epistemology and Methodology in Feminist Sociological Research*

This analysis focuses on feminist methodology in the field of sociology by surveying the techniques used in recent research concerning gender-related topics as well as feminist analyses of epistemological assumptions underlying the conduct of inquiry. In addition to the critique and reformulation of standard research practice, feminist methodology involves the development of innovative methodological approaches, including visual techniques, conversational and textual analysis, and analysis of spontaneous events. Linked to the development of innovation is the feminist analysis of the epistemological assumptions which underlie different ways of knowing. These principles of feminist knowledge include (1) the necessity of continuously and reflexively attending to the significance of gender relations as a basic feature of all social life, including the conduct of research; (2) the centrality of consciousness-raising as a specific methodological tool and as a “way of seeing;” (3) the need to challenge the norm of “objectivity” that assumes a dichotomy between the subject and object of research; (4) the concern for the ethical implications of research; and (5) an emphasis on the transformation of patriarchy and the empowerment of women.     

The Saturday center: A training institution in process

This article describes a training institution in which the primary learning vehicle is the focus on psychotherapists' inner selves. The mission, history, task, rationale, and dilemmas of the institution are explicated. A supervision vignette demonstrates exploration of character issues via parallel process to resolve a learning and treatment impasse.     

Government economic planning in the United Kingdom

The present system has its origins in the 1961. Plowden Report, which spawned both the Public Expenditure Survey and the Medium Term Assessment. The ramifications and requirements of the former provide the hard backbone of U.K. planning; formal indicative planning has not been attempted since the National Plan of 1965. Instead, the Medium Term Assessment provides a feasible range of scenarios for the next 5 years, circulated only within the Treasury but used as background for the main public expenditure and other economic policy decisions, for advice given to nationalized industries, and for information given to NEDO. However, the emphasis in Government relations with the private sector has shifted firmly away from indicative planning to the ‘bottom-up’ approach of the Industrial Strategy. This general framework appears likely to endure.     

Trauma of parent loss through divorce,death, and illness

This paper examines the variations in childrens' responses to parent loss. Initially examined is the effect of institutionalization and foster care, and these experiences are contrasted with that of parent loss through death, divorce, and abandoment. Illustrative case vignettes are offered to attempt to highlight useful concepts drawn from ego psychology and self psychology, theories useful in providing clinicians with more precise diagnostic and prognostic acumen, to enrich ongoing treatment interventions with these child populations.     

The Status of Women in Australian Family Therapy*

This article examines the participation of female family therapists as leaders in Australian family therapy. The involvement of women in publications, education and status positions is presented and shows that women are significantly under-represented in these areas. A brief examination is then made of factors within the profession itself that mitigate against the advancement of women and their inclusion in the upper echelon.     

The expansion of religious affiliation: An explanation of the growth of church participation in the United States 1850–1930

This paper focuses on the period in U.S. history that experienced the most rapid rate of increase of church membership—the decades between 1850 and 1930—in order to explain synchronic and diachronic variation in those rates. Using pooled cross-sectional time series analysis, different predictions are derived and tested from theories of secularization/social control, comparative disadvantage, resource mobilization, and pluralism. The effects of spatial diffusion and the momentum of religious tradition also are estimated. Our conclusion is that religious monopoly—not diversity—fuels religious expansion. This finding is bolstered by the complementary result that ethnic homogeneity is also conducive to religious expansion. Together these results highlight the importance for mobilization of religious and ethnocultural dominance in a particular niche.     

英国医疗卫生体系问题与医疗卫生政策改革研究

健康是人们福利的重要组成部分,因此医疗卫生政策和体系是社会政策的重要领域。该项研究从贫穷、低收入和健康之间的关联中评估人们对医疗保健的需要;指出英国存在全科医生、医院医生及公共卫生医生是医疗卫生服务提供的主体;英国在医疗卫生政策改革方面的内容包括:(1)对英国全民医疗体系(NHS)多渠道的财政支持,(2)提高服务质量的机构管理改革,(3)实施提高服务质量的安全、有效、病人中心、及时、效率、和平的原则;英国存在的强大政治集团及其利益影响着改革;政府需要在减少医疗服务中不平等和提供及时有效的服务方面努力。     

A different kind of holding environment: a case study of group work with pediatric staff

This paper reports a nearly two-year intervention with staff at a major urban pediatric facility. The authors worked as trainers and consultants for two groups-the Emergency Department (ED) and Chronic Care units (CC). Following two days of training about grief and loss, highlighting skill building for work with traumatized and grieving children and parents, the consultants worked to develop teams which could provide a Winnicottian holding environment for staff. The efficacy of this staff training is analyzed and support needs of staff members are identified. Findings include varied willingness to make use of group support. Chronic care participants are more likely to express willingness to engage in on-going support for one another, while ED staff members seem to prefer structured, educational training and episodic support. The holding environment of the processing groups must be adapted to fit the needs of the medical sub-culture.     

Practice challenges at the intersection of child protection and mental health

This paper examines the complexity of collaboration between child protection and mental health services, where a parent has a mental illness and there are protection concerns for children. The paper reports on data from focused in‐depth interviews with 36 child protection workers, adult mental health workers and child and youth mental health workers. Data were analysed thematically, using NVivo to facilitate data management and analysis. Two dimensions were identified. The first, the process of collaboration, relates to four factors that assisted the collaborative process: communication, knowledge, role clarity and resources. The second dimension considers the challenges presented to collaborative work when a parent has a mental illness and a child is in need of protection, and identifies issues that are inherent in cases of this kind. Two types of challenge were identified. The first related to characteristics of mental illness, and included the episodic and/or unpredictable nature of mental illness, incorporating information from psychiatric and parenting capacity assessments, and the provision of ongoing support. The second type of challenge concerned the tension between the conflicting needs of parents and their children, and how this was viewed from both the adult mental health and the child protection perspective. Implications for policy and practice are identified in relation to the need for service models that provide ongoing, flexible support that can be intensified or held back as needed.