Inequality and the Self: Exploring Connections from an Interactionist Perspective

Symbolic interactionism provides a major contribution to understanding inequality by illuminating the various manifestations and contexts of inequality at the micro, everyday level of social life. Drawing on a spectrum of symbolic interactionist theory and research, we examine the range of symbolic and interactional manifestations of social inequality, the consequences of being the object of patterned interactional affronts, and the strategies people use to negotiate interactional stigmatization in everyday life. We argue that symbolic interaction's unique contribution to understanding inequality results from two of the perspective's central features. First, symbolic interactionism emphasizes the necessity of investigating social life in situated social interaction. Second, it highlights social actors' capacities to interpret and construct lines of action rather than respond directly to the stimuli they encounter. Symbolic interactionist research and theory thus contribute to a more complex understanding of social stratification than that provided by perspectives focused exclusively on macroscopic structural factors.     

Opportunities for woman-initiated HIV prevention methods among female sex workers in southern China

Rapid changes in China over the past two decades have led to significant problems associated with population migration and changing social attitudes, including a growing sex industry and concurrent increases in STIs and HIV. This article reports results of an exploratory study of microbicide acceptability and readiness and current HIV prevention efforts among female sex workers in two rural and one urban town in Hainan and Guangxi Provinces in southern China. The study focused on these women's knowledge and cultural understandings of options for protecting themselves from exposure to STIs and HIV, and the potential viability and acceptability of woman-initiated prevention methods. We report on ethnographic elicitation interviews conducted with women working within informal sex-work establishments (hotels, massage and beauty parlors, roadside restaurants, boarding houses). We discuss implications of these findings for further promotion of woman-initiated prevention methods such as microbicides and female condoms among female sex workers in China.     

A Path Analytic Model of a Theory of Quality Management Underlying the Deming Management Method: Preliminary Empirical Findings*

Despite the impact that Deming and his 14 Points have had on the practice of quality management, empirical support for the effectiveness of the Deming Management Method has not advanced beyond the presentation of anecdotal, case-study evidence. In part, this is because theory to guide the conduct of empirical research has not been available. Only recently has such a theory of quality management to describe and explain the effectiveness of the Deming Management Method been articulated in the literature. This paper continues the journey of theory development; it reports the results of an exploratory empirical analysis of an articulated theory of quality management underlying the Deming Management Method. The constructs in the proposed theory are operationalized using measurement statements developed by the World-Class Manufacturing research project team at the University of Minnesota and Iowa State University. Path analysis is applied to the World-Class Manufacturing project data to explore the empirical strength of relationships advanced in the theory. The path analytic results provide support for several of the proposed relationships in the theory, and more importantly, suggest a number of new relationships which have not heretofore been proposed.     

Women and Their Work on Australian Farms

Traditional definitions of farm work have been narrow and commodity-based, allowing the efforts of women to be discounted because they have not been viewed as directly contributing to production. This paper examines the structural gender arrangements that operate to render farm women powerless and to discount their contributions. Data are presented on the extent of women's economic contribution on Australian farms.     

学区在教育变革中的作用

美国和加拿大对于学区在教育变革中的作用研究已有近40年的历史.关于学区在教育变革中的作用研究可划分为几个具有不同特点的时期,包括创新实施时期、高效学校范式时期、学校重构时期和基于标准的变革时期.综述列举了不同研究时期最重要的一些研究,并讨论了它们的研究特点和成果.在关于成功学区的案例研究的基础上,着重分析了学区在系统改进学生学习的过程中所面临的挑战、学区改进学生学习所采取的策略以及学区影响教学和学习质量的证据.同时,总结并讨论了12条促进学生学习的学区策略,提供了5个关于学区在教育变革中的作用的研究方向.     

Toward Father‐friendly Parenting Interventions: A Qualitative Study

Levels of father participation in parenting interventions are often very low, yet little is known about the factors which influence father engagement. We aimed to qualitatively explore perceived barriers to, and preferences for, parenting interventions in a community sample of fathers. Forty‐one fathers across nine focus groups were interviewed using a semi‐structured interview. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Key barriers to father participation identified included: the perception that interventions are mother‐focused; beliefs about gender roles regarding parenting and help‐seeking; mothers’ role as ‘gatekeeper’; lack of knowledge and awareness of parenting interventions; and lack of relevance of interventions. Fathers reported preferences for specific content and intervention features, facilitator characteristics, practical factors, and highlighted the need for father‐targeted recruitment and advertising. Many of the barriers and preferences identified are consistent with previous research; however, fathers’ beliefs and attitudes around gender roles and help‐seeking, as well as the perception that interventions are predominantly mother‐focused, may be key barriers for community fathers. Strategies to overcome these barriers and better meet the needs of fathers in promoting and delivering parenting interventions are discussed.     

Shame and pride in second-generation German identity in Melbourne,Australia: emotions and white ethnicity

As members of an established, well-integrated, white ethnic group, second-generation Germans are largely invisible in Australian society. Given this, they are easily presumed a group for whom Gans’ notion of ‘symbolic ethnicity’ might apply. However, based on interviews with adult children of German immigrants in Melbourne, Australia, this article suggests an alternative interpretation using recent literature on the role of emotions for identity. In the interviews with adult children of German immigrants in Melbourne, Australia, the notions of shame and pride in relation to ethnic identity were clearly evident. Shame often emerged in interaction with other people in Australia, and particularly in relation to Nazism and the Second World War. However, most respondents felt equally proud of their German heritage, particularly later in life. These findings suggest that ethnic identity for these second-generation Germans is a deeper, embodied experience that is similar to what Bourdieu terms habitus.     

Time to listen: strategies to improve hospital-based postnatal care

BACKGROUND: In Australia and internationally, women report high levels of dissatisfaction with hospital-based postnatal care. AIM: To design and implement strategies to improve hospital-based postnatal care at a Sydney metropolitan hospital. METHOD: This was an Action Research study. In Phase One, midwives considered the literature and participated in group discussions and interviews to determine their perceptions of postnatal care and the factors that facilitate or hinder the provision of quality care. In Phase Two, midwives participated in 12 working group meetings to design strategies to improve care. RESULTS: Several important principles of postnatal care were described, including building a relationship with women, meeting their individual needs, being flexible in approach and providing continuity of care. 'Listening to women', 'being there,' and 'normalising experiences and expectations' were believed to be critical to achieving these principles. A key strategy 'One to One Time' was designed to provide women with an uninterrupted period of time each day with a midwife who was available to listen to their needs and concerns and discuss issues related to their health and that of their baby. CONCLUSION: Midwives designed and implemented strategies that they believed would improve in-hospital postnatal care.