The Enactment and Appraisal of Authenticity in a Skid Row Therapeutic Community

This article describes the enactment and appraisal of authenticity in a skid row therapeutic community for the treatment of substance problems. Commitment to recovery was a basic requirement of participation in treatment, but it was widely assumed among program participants that many of their peers merely feigned commitment to recovery in order to remain sheltered. As a result, the enactment and appraisal of authentic commitment to recovery became a central organizing feature of therapeutic practice in the program. I first describe how the program's demand that participants engage in authentic self-disclosure bore on the treatment experienced by homeless residents of skid row. I then outline local techniques employed by program members for enacting and appraising authentic commitment to recovery through progressive stages of the treatment process. I conclude with a discussion of how this analysis deepens our understanding of the enactment and appraisal of authenticity throughout social life and a critique of Hochschild's influential constructionist formulation of the relationship between emotion management and personal authenticity.     

Sociological Perspectives on Addiction

This article provides a critical survey of sociological research on addiction. It begins with the seminal research of Alfred Lindesmith on heroin addiction then proceeds through discussions of functionalist contributions, research that exemplifies what David Matza called the ‘appreciative’ turn in the sociology of deviance, rational choice theories, and social constructionist approaches. It is confined to research on addiction in its original meaning as putative enslavement to a substance or activity rather than merely deviant or disapproved activity more broadly. As will be seen, though, there is a ubiquitous and theoretically interesting tendency even among those who contend to be writing about addiction as such to slip into modes of analysis that effectively substitute questions regarding the social approval of an activity for questions concerning whether it is voluntary or involuntary. Hence, one purpose of this article is to explore whether, and how, this slippage might be avoided.     

The language and techniques of multiyear restructing of sovereign debt: Lessons from the Mexican experience

While many economists assure that the restructing of sovereign external debt is a straightforward matter, there are many practical details that bankers must address in negotiating a deal. The problems are compounded in a multiyear restructing, where a new frame of reference had to be established for the problem of debt restructing, including new concepts for included and excluded debt, various schedule for amortizations, monitoring, and conditionality procedures, and pricing considerations. The end result achieved for Mexico can be used as starting point for other debt restructing discussions, at least from a technical point of view.     

EXAMINING FAMILY-OF-ORIGIN INFLUENCES IN LIFE AT WORK*

Patterns of interaction to which people became accustomed in their families of origin often play largely unacknowledged roles in their lives at work and can contribute to unwanted pressures and stress on the job. This article describes a method that can be used by family therapists to assist people in identifying and examining the ways in which family-of-origin dynamics affect their lives at work. A rationale for this work is described, relevant literature is cited, and professional and ethical issues involved in conducting family-of-origin workshops in the work setting are discussed.     

Bare Bodies: Nudity,Gender, and the Looking Glass Body1

This article examines the role of nude embodiment as it affects sexuality, intimacy, and pleasure when people seek to align their nude body with cultural values. This research, based on open‐ended and closed‐ended data from 184 young heterosexual adults attending a large Midwestern university, finds the experience of nude embodiment and its effects to be strongly gendered. For example, among both men and women, comfort with one’s nude body is associated with a sexually expansive point of view, but it is only found to be associated with sexual behavior and pleasure among the women. For women, too, feelings of objectification in nude embodiment are shown to be mitigated through positive relationships with their male partner. Throughout we emphasize the “lived experience” of the body, especially as experienced in the body techniques used in the pursuit of sexual intimacy and pleasure. Discussion relates these results to objectification theory and how wider social changes may impinge on sexual embodiment in general.     

When managers become leaders: The role of manager network centralities,social power,and followers' perception of leadership

We explore how formal managers' centralities in both positive and negative networks predict followers' perceptions of their leadership. By incorporating social networks and social ledger theory with implicit leadership theories (ILTs), we hypothesize that formally assigned group leaders (managers) who have more positive advice ties and fewer negative avoidance ties are more likely to be recognized as leaders by their followers. Further, we posit that managers' informal networks bring them greater social power, an important attribute differentiating leaders from non-leaders. We conducted two survey-based studies in student and field teams to test the hypotheses. Based on nested data in both studies, we found support for our hypotheses. These results remain robust across the two studies even though they used different designs (cross-sectional versus longitudinal), different samples (field versus students) across different countries (United States versus India), and a host of control variables at both the leader and follower levels. We find that managers who are central in the advice network are socially powerful and are seen as leaders by individual followers. In contrast, managers who are avoided by followers lack informal social power are not seen as leaders. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our findings and the ways in which our theory and results extend ILTs and social network theory.     

Evaluation of a system designed to link people living with HIV/AIDS with mental health services at an AIDS-service organization

This study evaluated the Rapid Response System, an initiative designed to link people living with HIV/AIDS with mental health services at an AIDS service organization. Data were extracted from agency records for 314 clients who had contact with the Rapid Response System over a 6-month period. Of the 281 clients who scheduled an appointment for an evaluation to initiate mental health services, 64% completed the evaluation. In the multivariate analysis, Latinos were significantly less likely than whites to complete the mental health evaluation. Further, there was a significant decrease in the likelihood of completing the mental health evaluation as the number of days between the Rapid Response System contact and the date of the evaluation appointment increased.Strategies that reduce the period of time between the initial referral and initiation of services may facilitate linkage with mental health treatment, particularly in the context of larger multi-service organizations.