“It's Difficult to Hide It”: The Presentation of Self on Internet Home Pages

This paper explores identity and interaction with reference to Internet home pages. All home pages reveal identity, whether or not that is the intention of their authors. Identity statements can take categorical, relational, or narrative forms. A survey of home page owners reveals that some home pages are created to maintain relationships formed apart from the Internet (extrinsic pages) and some are created to contact the denizens of the Internet (intrinsic pages). The different motives for creation do not affect home page design and contents, but do relate to differences in overall Internet use and in authors' conceptualizations of the Internet. Both intrinsic and extrinsic pages are analyzed in light of charges that the Internet self is postmodern, transitory, deceptive, and fragmented. The charge of postmodernity is found to be overstated, however, because while the Internet shapes identity statements, it does not determine their form or usage.     

"Mapping the New Mental World Created by Radio": Media Messages, Cultural Politics, and Cantril and Allport's The Psychology of Radio

During the 1930s a number of interesting critiques of science and society emerged in the social sciences in general, and in psychology in particular. One example of this trend is The Psychology of Radio (1935), authored by Harvard psychologist Gordon Allport and his former student Hadley Cantril. The book, which was intended for both professional and lay audiences, sought to open discussion on the effects of the pervasive presence of radio, and to throw into relief the political, cultural, and economic contexts in which this new form of mass communication was embedded.     

Girls' Violence: Beyond Dangerous Masculinity

In this article, we review criminological perspectives of girls' violence. To do this, we first look at the 20th-century tendency to view violent girls as being the same as violent boys or as taking up dangerous types of masculinity. Second, we consider the contemporary ways that researchers have tried to move beyond male-centered and masculinized explanations of female violence. Noting potential problems with current perspectives, we argue that researchers need to address the contexts surrounding female offending, which includes understanding the effects and nature of gender, race, and class inequalities and how they (singly and in combination) predict popular representations and treatment of violent girls. We conclude by cautioning contemporary researchers to avoid returning to androcentric perspectives of girls' physical aggression. Not only are such perspectives logically problematic, they are also consequential. In particular, they have facilitated the masculinization and punishment of poor or working-class girls of color who are filling US detention centers and juvenile prisons in ever increasing numbers.     

A Preliminary Analysis of Research on Recovery from Homelessness

Changing attitudes toward the poor are producing sweeping revisions in public welfare. The homeless population may be particularly affected by stricter guidelines for subsidies and service. This article reports findings from the first 2 years of an ongoing, qualitative, longitudinal study of nine formerly homeless families who received services at a transitional shelter in 1994. The purpose was to explore the extent to which these families were able to maintain self-sufficiency. One year after care, two families were on the verge of homelessness again, and all needed public assistance to meet basic needs. Two years after care, eight families were beginning to attain economic self-sufficiency. Recommendations address programmatic issues, including the need for comprehensive services during the shelter stay and family mentoring during the rehousing process.     

Triadic configurations in limited choice sociometric networks: Empirical and theoretical results

Previous research demonstrated that information contained in triad censuses from heterogeneous collections of social networks occupies a high dimensional space. Regions of this space, and locations of triad censuses within it, are largely defined by lower order network properties: network density and dyad distributions [Faust, K., 2006. Comparing social networks: size, density, and local structure. Metodološki Zvezki (Advances in Methodology and Statistics) 3 (2), 185–216; Faust, K., 2007. Very local structure in social networks. Sociological Methodology 37, 209–256]. The current paper extends comparative work on triad censuses by addressing three related issues. First, it determines and interprets the space occupied by triad censuses for 128 friendship networks gathered using a limited choice sociometric protocol. Second, it constructs a theoretical space for triad censuses expected given lower order graph properties and examines the dimensionality and shape of this space. Third, it brings together these lines of investigation to determine where the empirical triad censuses reside within the theoretical space. Results show that the empirical triad censuses are almost perfectly represented in one dimension (explaining 99% of the data) and that network density explains over 96% of the variance in locations on this dimension. In contrast, the theoretical space for triad censuses is at least four-dimensional, with distinctive regions defined by network density and dyad distributions. Within this theoretical space, the empirical triad censuses occupy a restricted region that closely tracks triad censuses expected given network density. Results differ markedly from prior findings that the space occupied by triad censuses from heterogeneous social networks is of high dimensionality. Results also reinforce observations about constraints that network size and density place on graph level indices.     

Legitimating the First Tattoo: Moral Passage through Informal Interaction

Once considered low class or dangerous symbols, tattoos began to be defined as hip, trendy, and glamorous in the 1990s. Using the increasing popularity of tattoos among nineties youth as an example of moral passage, this article examines some of the interpretive processes at work in the destigmatization of deviance. Whereas researchers have positioned political action or population shifts as the main forces influencing moral passage, this article posits a new route toward social change. It builds on participant observation data with a population of middle‐class tattooees and examines how individuals attempted to legitimate their tattoos during interactions with others. First‐time tattooees in the 1990s are seen as agents caught between multiple symbolic orders—symbolic orders that generated conflicting images of tattoos. Relying on a set of legitimation techniques, middle‐class tattooees worked to overcome the negative meanings associated with tattoos by getting body art that conformed to core mainstream norms and values. By examining the creation and use of these legitimation maneuvers, this article reveals the way in which definitions of deviance are negotiated in everyday contexts. In addition, the process of legitimation identified in this article points to one way in which everyday interactions can contribute to larger cultural shifts.     

Problematising parent–professional partnerships in education

The value of, and need for, parent–professional partnerships is an unchallenged mantra within policy relating to ‘special educational needs’. In spite of this, partnerships continue to be experienced as problematic by both parents and professionals. This paper brings together the different perspectives of two disability researchers: one a parent of a disabled child while the other was a teacher for 20 years of children with the label autism. The paper deconstructs the concept of partnership and then, drawing on the expertise of parents, suggests how enabling and empowering parent–professional relationships might be achieved.     

Technology,Relationships, and Problems: A Research Synthesis

The advances in technology alter the ways we interact with each other. For some, the use of technology can facilitate a relationship; for others, technology can complicate aspects of a relationship. The purpose of this research synthesis is to summarize current research exploring the ways in which technology impacts relationships negatively. Eight studies were reviewed across the following areas: preoperational definitions, sample, methodology, control of extraneous variables, causal influence, generalizability, validity of statistical findings, and conclusions. Implications for authors, researchers, and therapists working with couples and families struggling with technology issues are discussed.