Outsider and Insider Expertise: The Response of Residents of Deprived Neighbourhoods to an Academic Definition of Social Exclusion

The aim of this paper is to compare academic interpretations of the term social exclusion with the understanding of people with direct experience of the phenomenon. A preselected group of residents of deprived neighbourhoods were asked about various aspects of the concept and their responses compared with the definitions of social exclusion used by Burchardt, Le Grand and Piachaud in this Journal in 1999. In general, the residents' understanding of the term corresponded well with the more academic definitions; however, in one or two key areas there were significant differences, suggesting that it might be useful for more academic concepts to be tested against the views of those with experience of the phenomenon which the concept is trying to capture.     

The application of industrial robots in the Soviet engineering industry

Despite its scale and impressive rate of development the Soviet industrial robotics programme has received little attention in the West. In many respects the economic and social conditions for the application of industrial robots on a wide scale are favourable, but many problems are being experienced in securing their practical adoption and effective use. The paper reviews the Soviet robotics programme, the difficulties being encountered and the manner in which they are being tackled.     

中温、宽电流、免搅拌缎面镍电镀工艺的研究

提出了一种长效型电镀缎面镍工艺 ,采用自行研制的缎面镍WD - 2 0系列添加剂 ,在中温、宽电流、免搅拌条件下 ,得到了外观均匀的缎面镍镀层 .同时 ,对各种工艺参数对镀层质量、镀层表面形貌的影响进行了研究 .研究结果表明 ,添加剂对镀液中镍粒子的电化学形为有一定的影响 .     

IN SEARCH OF WORKING-CLASS IDEOLOGY: A TEST OF TWO PERSPECTIVES*

This article begins as a test of two types of explanation of working-class consciousness. The first focuses upon structural factors. The second identifies nonwork variables as the critical determinant of workers' consciousness. Based on information collected from manual workers in two plants in Edmonton, Canada, the present research finds that neither perspective emerges as a significant determinant of worker ideology. The second part of the article addresses this issue and offers an explanation of the failure to account for much of the variation in workers' ideological thinking.     

Uniform stochastic ordering and related inequalities

Stochastic order between univariate random variates may be called uniform when such order persists under conditioning to a broad family of intervals. The ordering is local when it holds for any finite interval (a, b), however small. Local order in multivariate settings has been described by Whitt (1980, 1981), by Karlin and Rinott (1980), and by others. The prevalence of uniform and local order in a variety of simple stochastic-process settings is displayed, and inequalities arising from such orderings developed.     

Coverage Bias in Traditional Telephone Surveys of Low-Income and Young Adults

The proportion of adults with only wireless telephones is growingrapidly. Using 2006 data from the National Center for HealthStatistics’ National Health Interview Survey, this articleis among the first to reveal that noncoverage of this populationcan result in nonnegligible bias for traditional random-digit-diallandline telephone surveys that do not call wireless telephonenumbers. In 2006 in the United States, 17 percent of low-incomeadults with household income below 200 percent of the federalpoverty thresholds, 25 percent of young adults aged 18–29years, and 32 percent of low-income young adults lived in householdswith only wireless telephones. Within each of these three subgroups,we compared wireless-only adults and adults with landline telephoneson demographic characteristics and 13 key indicators of healthstatus, health behaviors, health care service use, and healthcare access. Even after statistical adjustments that accountfor demographic differences between adults living in householdswith and without landlines, telephone surveys of landlines willunderestimate the prevalence of health behaviors, such as bingedrinking, smoking, and HIV testing. Obesity may be overestimatedand physical activity may be underestimated for low-income youngadults. No significant bias is predicted for other measuresof health status and health insurance coverage. Sample weightingprocedures that incorporate adjustments for multiple demographiccharacteristics are necessary to help attenuate coverage biasin traditional telephone surveys, but may not be sufficientfor behavioral risk factor surveys of low-income and young adults.     

Volunteers, families and children in need: an evaluation of Family Friends

This paper explores the findings from a small‐scale research project that analysed the impact of Family Friends – a voluntary agency that provides support to families under stress who have children aged between 5 and 11 years. The study, funded by Family Friends, evaluated service users’ perceptions of the support they received, specifically in relation to the significance and impact of the volunteer befrienders. The research identified that there are a proportion of families in need who fail to attract services from mainstream statutory agencies. It also identified that the Family Friends voluntary agency makes a particular contribution to service provision by offering a friendly, non‐stigmatizing, caring and responsive service.     

“a Difficult Life”: The Perceptions and Experience of Poverty in South Africa

The purpose of this article is to provide a fuller and more integrated understanding of poverty based on the results of a nation wide participatory study recently completed in South Africa. A surprisingly consistent view of poverty emerges from the study which includes social isolation, malnourished children, crowded homes, the use of basic energy sources, no employment, and fragmented households. A clear image of what results from extreme poverty also emerges comprising continuous ill health, arduous and often hazardous work for virtually no income, no power to influence change, and high levels of anxiety and stress. The article concludes that conventional definitions of poverty do not fully describe the experience of poverty as analysed by the poor themselves. Instead, the multidimensional nature of poverty suggests that three basic concepts would be useful in any analysis of extent, nature and persistence of poverty. These are sufficiency, access and vulnerability.     

Anticolonial thought,the sociological imagination,and social science: A reply to critics

Sociology was born in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a project in, of, and for empire. This essay excavates a tradition of social thought that grew alongside metropolitan sociology but has been marginalized by it: anticolonial thought. Emerging from anticolonial movements, writers and thinkers, anticolonial thought in 19th and 20th centuries emerged from a variety of thinkers (from indigenous activists in the Americas to educated elites in the American, Francophone and British colonies). I argue that this body of thought offers distinct visions of society, social relations, and social structure, along with generative analytic approaches to the social self, social solidarity and global relations—among other themes. Anticolonial thought offers the basis for an alternative canon and corpus of sociological thinking to which we might turn as we seek to revitalize and decolonize sociology.     

Social investments in the knowledge economy: The politics of inclusive,stratified, and targeted reforms across the globe

As countries transition from industrial to post-industrial knowledge economies, education and skills are crucial. Consequently, policy-makers around the globe have increasingly focused on social investment, that is, policies aiming to create, mobilize, or preserve skills. Yet, countries around the globe have developed social investments to different degrees and in highly different forms. Our goal is twofold: First, we introduce a new typology of social investment policies, distinguishing nine types along two dimensions: three distributive profiles (inclusive, stratified, targeted) and three functions (skill creation, preservation, mobilization). This differentiation allows fine-grained analyses of the causes and consequences of different kinds of social investments, thus offering a perspective to study the relationship between efficiency and inclusiveness in a way that goes beyond the mere discussion how social investment policies grosso modo affect inequalities (‘equalizing’ versus ‘Matthew Effects’). Second, we theorize on the politics of social investment. We argue that the interaction of policy legacies and socioeconomic factors is the main explanation for which functions of social investment policies are introduced, whereas their distributive profiles are crucially shaped by political coalitions. We illustrate with empirical material from democracies around the globe.