What’s in a yardscape? A case study of emergent ecosystem services and disservices within resident yardscape discourses in Minnesota

Urban Ecosystems - Residential yardscapes are at the forefront of human interaction with nature for those living in urban areas across Europe and North America. In recent years a significant amount...     

Palm snags are a critical nesting resource for woodpeckers in an urbanized tropical region

Urban Ecosystems - Critical resources for birds nesting in cities can support populations in spite of the challenges imposed by urbanization, and the identification of such resources can shed light...     

A Multidimensional Dynamic Measure of Child Disadvantage: A Methodological Tool for Policymakers

This paper demonstrates the applicability of an innovative approach towards examining child disadvantage, using a holistic, dynamic measure that not only accounts for multiple sources of disadvantage but also for the recurrence and persistence of disadvantage throughout a child’s life. We analyse child disadvantage using two longitudinal surveys of the Australian child population, one of which is specific to Indigenous children, who experience notably higher rates of disadvantage. Among Australian children, we detect that poor body weight and bullying—representative of the broad dimensions of health and emotional wellbeing—should be of significant concern to policymakers. Among Indigenous children, housing conditions, schooling and exposure to risky behaviours stand out as areas of concern. By identifying the dimensions in which rates of child disadvantage are most severe, this methodological approach can help steer targeted policy actions.     

Coping With Stress as an LGBTQ+ Health Care Professional

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual/gender minority (LGBTQ+) health care providers face both general work-related stresses and working in heteronormative settings with ill-informed or hostile coworkers and patients, yet there has been little study of whether the coping strategies are specific to LGBTQ+ stress. We analyzed qualitative data from 277 health care professionals. Sources of stress included religiously and politically conservative coworkers, coworker/patient lack of knowledge, stresses of being closeted, and concerns about being out to patients. Consequences of being out as LGBTQ+ included lack of promotions, gossip, refusals of tenure, and anti-LGBTQ+ comments and behaviors in the workplace. Respondents showed mostly positive coping strategies to deal with stress, including becoming educators/advocates and self-care activities. Self-care options were common in rural areas with few LGBTQ+ social resources. Negative coping strategies were reported by 18% of respondents. The study highlights the extra burden of stress on LGBTQ+ health care providers.     

Population age structure and consumption growth: evidence from National Transfer Accounts

We assess the effects of the population age structure and the population dynamics on economic growth. Following recent research, we focus on the generational turnover effect to characterize the influence of birth and death rates, depending on the age profile of individual consumption, the extent of annuity market imperfections, and the willingness of households to shift consumption over time. Using data from the National Transfer Accounts on age profiles of consumption for a number of different countries, we assess—in a comparative way—the sign and the magnitude of the generational turnover effect and its impact on economic growth. We find considerable cross-country differences and trace them back to the underlying variation in demography and in the age structure of consumption.     

Die Finanzialisierung von Unternehmen

Since the 1990s the financialization of the enterprise is an increasingly important aspect of capitalist development also in Germany. However, more recently a growing number of scholars point at a problematic conceptual stretching of financialization. The term has been defined too differently and ambiguously and has not been distinguished sufficiently from seemingly similar concepts. Financialization has been prematurely identified with a set of fixed effects often condensed to stagist concepts of capitalist development. When analyzing effects financialization has been regarded in isolation without considering interaction effects with other structurations of fields and hence the multi-referentiality of the enterprise. In order to overcome these shortcomings the article proposes a concept for the analysis of firm level financialization which draws on a more general sociological concept of field structuration and dynamics in which the “multi-referential enterprise” operates. Based on this concept the article analyses episodes of financialization in Germany showing its dynamics and limits. Financialization of enterprises proves to be structurally limited, institutionally contested, and unfolds its effects in deferent actor constellations at firm level due to its multiple and contradictory embeddedness.     

Contemporary Social Work Practice with Veterans: An Introduction to the Special Issue

This special issue is a historical marker for contemporary social work practice with veteran populations. The editors requested papers from private, public, and academic settings that illustrate the special needs of veterans. The articles in this issue address the impact of military culture and the veteran identity, diversity, eras of service, access to care, and different stages psycho-social development on clinical practice. This introduction places the articles submitted in the context of historical and current trends in veterans’ research concluding with a call to recognize resilience inherent in this population. It is hoped that this issue will serve as a tool for clinicians, researchers, and educators to improve upon their work as well as bring a new generation to serve and support those who served.     

Stigmatized Identities: Too Muslim to Be American,Too American to Be Muslim

In the United States today, Muslim identity is highly stigmatized. Much of this can be attributed to an increasing climate of Islamophobia. The current study finds that some Muslim Americans are confronted with another source of stigma: other Muslims. Using interview data with 23 Muslim Americans in and around Houston, TX, this study examines the intersection of religious out‐group and in‐group stigma in the lives of Muslim Americans. Findings suggest that stigma comes not only from non‐Muslims, but also from other Muslims. Some Muslim Americans are especially vulnerable to religious in‐group stigma. Those who are most acculturated to non‐Muslim, Western culture often face criticism from Muslim communities, be they inside or outside the United States. These Muslim Americans find that they are not perceived as fully Muslim or fully American, and therefore denied the full benefits of either status while simultaneously bearing the burden of both. This paper articulates the multiple dimensions of stigma faced by Muslims in America.