Twelve Years After: The Berlin Wall as Will and Idea

The Berlin Wall at different times in its ignominious history has been demonized by Western opinion less because of its real paltry role in the Cold War tension in Europe than because of the fears and frustrations it generated within Europe. This is the central theme and claim of this paper. We attempt to show through an excursion of personal and institutional events how the perceptions of Soviet communist realities were refracted through the icon of the Wall as a Cold War symbol.     

Peer Stress in Preadolescence: Linking Physiological and Coping Responses With Social Competence

This study examined associations between real‐time physiological and coping responses in the context of salient peer stress experiences in preadolescence, as well as independent and interactive associations linking physiological and coping responses with social competence. Physiological responses included respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity (RSAR) and skin conductance level reactivity (SCLR) during laboratory‐based peer‐evaluative stress experiences. Engaged and disengaged coping strategies were assessed with real‐time responses to peer‐evaluative stress (assessed immediately following peer‐evaluative stress experiences in the laboratory) and with questionnaire‐based responses to peer victimization. Analyses consistently revealed associations between lower RSAR (lower vagal withdrawal) and lower teacher‐reported social competence among preadolescents with disengaged (and low engaged) coping responses to peer‐evaluative stress in the laboratory, as well as disengaged coping responses to peer victimization.     

商务社交法则

你知道有一种人：他们惹人厌烦地大笑,声调咄咄逼人,而且有本事在行业会议中把你堵住,没完没了地谈论他们自己长达数小时;他们显然并无恶意,但是他们的礼仪不周会让你满心希望自己没有到场。这里有一个友善的建议：别做那样的人。社会交往是至关重要的一环,同时也可能是最容易出错的一环。     

The how and the why: Competences and holistic practice

Social work education and training in the UK was, in the 1990s, restructured on a competence-based model. Drawing on the literature and a survey of students from one Diploma in Social Work programme, this paper offers a critical appraisal of this approach to social work education, placing it in the context of opposing ideological frameworks. It reviews the strengths and limitations of the system and discusses some of the problems and dilemmas arising in training for work involving values conflicts and complex tasks. It argues that there is a need for a new synthesis drawn from the strengths of technical rationalism and holistic reflective practice.     

Welfare and the Children of Immigrants: Transmission of Dependence or Investment in the Future?

The public concern that immigrant families might be using a disproportionate share of social benefits and transmitting some form of public dependency to their children, combined with the rising levels of immigrants entering the country, fueled the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996, which limited public assistance to many immigrant families. This paper uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to explore the association between exposure to welfare and young adult outcomes of high school graduation, college enrollment and labor force participation with a focus on parental nativity status as well as broad country of origin group. Results indicate a persistent negative association between welfare legacy and high school graduation; a negative association that is most pronounced for children of natives. Results also show the largest positive effect of welfare receipt among the most disadvantaged group, the young adult children of immigrants from Mexican and Central American countries. The main finding of this study suggests that the negative impacts of welfare receipt might be lessened and in some cases reversed among the young adults from immigrant families. Such findings challenge the common notion that immigrant families use welfare as a crutch across generations and raise serious concern about U.S. immigration and welfare policies.     

Communication in Online Forums About the Experience and Management of Relational Uncertainty in Military Life

Relational uncertainty is an undeniable aspect of military life, but the literature lacks knowledge about the lived experiences of military couples. We examined how individuals communicate in online forums about relational uncertainty in military life using a grounded theory approach to analyze 1,794 pages of threads. Results demonstrated that posters detected deception and/or recognized change, which led to volatile emotions, and ultimately prompted them to seek help for managing relational uncertainty. Posters dealt with their questions by engaging in self-care, justifying the partner’s behavior, postponing action, and doing relationship work. In reply, responders provided emotional support by offering comfort and reframing change. They provided informational support by recommending that posters acknowledge deception, take care of themselves, consider the partner’s perspective, defer major changes, and work on the relationship. These findings advance theorizing about relational uncertainty and social support; they also suggest guidelines for helping military couples manage relational uncertainty.     

Determining the Optimal Donation Acceptance Policy for Nonprofit Stores

Many nonprofits derive a considerable amount of their financial support from the resale of donated items. Given the razor‐thin margins at which many of these organizations operate, it is critical that they maximize the proceeds that come from the sale of these items. To do so, nonprofits require policies that guide their donation acceptance decisions so as to optimize revenue generation. This article presents research about how to determine the optimal donation acceptance policy for Habitat for Humanity. Habitat affiliates sell donated material at their ReStores, or discount home improvement centers, and the revenue from the ReStores directly supports the building of new homes. Several constraints limit the revenue that the ReStores derive from the donated items, including the supply rate of items from donors, the demand rate of items from customers, and the space limitations of the ReStores. We developed a two‐step method to determine the optimal acceptance policy—the daily amount of donations to accept to maximize revenue. This approach increases revenue by up to 20 percent and additionally provides insights into pricing options, marketing strategy, and optimal store size.     

Negotiating a third space for participatory research with people with learning disabilities: an examination of boundaries and spatial practices

The focus of this article is participatory research with and by people with learning disabilities. Drawing on discussions that took place across a series of seminars, we use the concepts of space and boundaries to examine the development of a shared new spatial practice through creative responses to a number of challenges. We examine the boundaries that exist between participatory and non-participatory research; the boundaries that exist between different stakeholders of participatory research; and the boundaries that exist between participatory research with people with learning disabilities and participatory research with other groups. With a particular focus on participatory data analysis and participatory research with people with high support needs, we identify a number of ways in boundaries are being crossed. We argue that the pushing of new boundaries opens up both new and messy spaces and that both are important for the development of participatory research methods.