A Fair Trade approach to community forest certification? A framework for discussion

Forest certification has gained growing attention as a market-based instrument to make globalizing markets a force for mitigating rather than fostering environmental degradation. Yet in practice, market mechanisms currently appear to encourage concentration of forest certification in Northern temperate and boreal forests, rather than in the tropical forests certification originally aimed to protect. At the same time, the share of tropical and other Southern forests under community management is increasing dramatically. Utilizing a comparative analysis of coffee and wood products commodity chains, a preliminary framework is proposed for exploring the obstacles and the possibilities of a “Fair Trade” approach to community forest certification. Obstacles include the structure of conventional wood products commodity chains, common wood product characteristics, certification's current commitment to conventional market logics and practices, and informal governance influences favoring powerful economic actors. The paper argues, however, that other features of forest certification, especially in the FSC scheme, are potentially supportive of a Fair Trade community forestry approach.     

Nonverbal behavior and attitudes toward touch

A measure of comfort with touching was found to predict whether or not subjects would volunteer to participate in an experiment involving hugging strangers of both sexes and also to predict levels of personal space. Among those volunteering to give hugs, subjects reporting greater comfort with touch rated those hugs more positively, but this seemed to reflect a readiness to interpret touch positively rather than any clear differences in the nature of the hug actually given. Earlier findings that women report greater comfort with touch than do men were replicated. It was found that reported touch comfort was directly related to such constructs as satisfaction with life, with oneself, and with one's childhood, as well as to self-confidence, assertiveness, socially acceptable self-presentation, and active rather than passive modes of coping with problems. Touch comfort was inversely related to expressed concerns with touches which might reflect status differentials, homosexuality, or negative affective states. It was concluded that the touch comfort construct reflects the degree of one's openness to expressing intimate behavior, the degree to which one adopts an active, rather than passive, interpersonal style, and the degree to which one's social relationships are satisfactory.     

On Accepting Relationships between People with Mental Retardation and Non-disabled People: Towards an Understanding of Acceptance

This article outlines the “sociology of acceptance” as a theoretical framework for understanding relationships between people with mental retardation and typical people. As a point of departure, the authors review sociocultural perspectives on deviance and explore their contribution to the study of mental retardation. Based on qualitative research on community programs for people with severe disabilities, the authors next examine the nature of accepting relationships and describe four sentiments expressed by typical people who form relationships with people with mental retardation: family; religious commitment; humanitarian sentiments; and feelings of friendship. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of a sociology of acceptance for the field of mental retardation.     

Strategic planning as an organizational change process—Some guidelines from practice

Learning to cope with the problems and uncertainties created by today's changing business environment is a task which faces ever company. Coping with the challenge of change is not just a question of adapting or reacting to the changes, it may also involve taking new initiatives in relation to the environment itself in order to exploit the opportunities which exist.A company may need to make fundamental adjustments to its philosophy, strategies, organization and practices in order to meet the newer demands of the environment. A prime difficulty is that companies are rarely in a position to start from scratch, they have existing organizational arrangements, power distributions, well established strategies and vested interests all of which tend to resist any kind of change which is likely to upset the ‘status quo’. They also have to overcome outdated beliefs and norms if they are to progress.This article considers the use of a modified approach to strategic planning as a mechanism for helping a company to acquire the norms, organization and strategies needed to cope with today's business environment. It is based on experience gained in helping to re-organize business enterprises engaged in textiles, steel tube manufacture, light engineering, distribution (world wide) and vehicle sales and servicing and also the Government of Jersey, Channel Islands.     

The contribution of social science research to health policy: the Royal Commission on the National Health Service

This article adopts a case study approach to examine the contribution of social science research to health policy. It concentrates exclusively on the recent Royal Commission on the National Health Service. After describing its background and modus operandi the paper goes on to assess the Report's utilization of social science research, both in its diagnosis and recommendations. This assessment suggests that while the Commissioners made relatively little use of research-based evidence in their diagnosis, their recommendations provide the basis for a substantial increase in the contribution of social scientists, particularly in the field of health services evaluation.