关于种族关系与民族关系的研究

社会学所追求的主要目标,不是具备精确地预测结局的能力,而是获得对社会状况的理解,这已言之有素了。假定我们知道了包含在一组特定事件中的变化无常的因素,我们就能从中引出结论并且作出若干合乎逻辑的推理来。把“理解”作为目标,这在关于种族关系和民族关系的研究工作中,比在其他任何地方都更为恰当。对于上面提出的这个问题,我们可以这样来认识,即当我们遇到经常演化出种种结局来的一系列复杂因素的时候,我们是可以     

肤色在美国黑人内部的影响日趋减弱

W·E·B·杜波伊斯在谈及20世纪初越来越按照严格的肤色线来划分种族时曾经预言:20世纪的历史在很大程度上是肤色界线的历史。在他写作的时代,美国对黑人的划分实际上存在着两条界线:一条是种族的分界线,用以区分白人以及来自非洲、定居在美国的黑人;另一条是以肤色的深浅形成的美国黑人内部分界线。这两条界线均对黑人的生活有着巨大的影     

“红种人”的最后一战

“卧牛”、“黑狼”、“白云”、“巨足”以及其他既有诗意又引人着迷的绰号,并不是美国西部电影中虚构的英雄人物。这些名字,过去那些在苦难中煎熬并为本民族的事业而献身的人使用过;而今,那些为民族的生存和平等权力而斗争的人,同样也还在使用。简而言之,他们就是居住在北美的印第安人。生活在美国的这些“红种人”,     

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.     

Assessing the relevance of higher education courses

The establishment of the European Higher Education Area has involved specifying lists of professional competencies that programs are expected to develop, and with this the need for procedures to measure how every course within a higher education program is aligned with the program's competencies. We propose an instrument for characterizing this alignment, a process that we call assessing the relevance of a course. Using information from the course syllabus (objectives, contents and assessment scheme), our instrument produces indicators for characterizing the syllabus in terms of a competence list and for assessing its coherence. Because assessment involves quality, the results obtained can also be used to revise and improve the course syllabus. We illustrate this process with an example of a methods course from a mathematics teacher education program at a Spanish university.     

Semi-structured interview protocol for constructing logic models

This paper details a semi-structured interview protocol that evaluators can use to develop a logic model of a program's services and outcomes. The protocol presents a series of questions, which evaluators can ask of specific program informants, that are designed to: (1) identify key informants basic background and contextual information, (2) generate logic model elements, (3) model program inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes, (4) build a rational theory, (5) develop a program theory, (6) prioritize logic model elements, and (7) build a graphical or tabular logic model. The paper will also provide an example of how this approach was used to develop a logic model for a youth mentoring program. It is our hope and belief that with this interview protocol, novice evaluators will be able to generate comprehensive logic models like seasoned professional evaluators.     

Connecting the gendered door: women, violence and doorwork

This paper explores the emerging role of women who work as 'bouncers', or doorstaff, in the night-time economy and examines how the cultural capital of the female bouncer is connected to the methods utilized to control licensed premises. It is drawn from a study that combined ethnographic observations and interviews in five major UK cities which explored a diverse range of issues such as gendered bodies, femininities and violence; the changing needs of the night-time economy in the UK and the experiences of women engaged in 'non-traditional' occupations. In this paper, we draw on interview data with one particular category of female door staff; women who share similar histories of exposure to violence and violent cultures, and we examine how their experiential knowledge of violence equips them with the resources to 'work the doors'. Our attention focuses on this group of women, who we refer to as 'The Connected', and examine how they are 'doing gender' when they negotiate violence 'on the door'     

Health professionals' attitudes and practices in relation to Functional Capacity Evaluations

Functional Capacity Evaluations (FCE's) are part of practice in work injury prevention and rehabilitation, and are designed to define an individual's functional abilities or limitations in the context of safe, productive work tasks. Qualitative research methodology was used to investigate the attitudes and behaviours of health professionals in relation to FCE use. The study aimed to identify why health professionals chose a particular FCE, and to identify what factors influence health professionals' clinical judgements when providing results and recommendations for the individual being assessed. Five health professionals from the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, participated in semi-structured, individual interviews using a phenomenological approach. Following inductive analysis of the data, four themes reflecting participants' attitudes and behaviours of FCE use emerged: i) referrals and expectations, including why and when the assessment is completed ii) outcomes, -- what the results aim to provide iii) workplace/practice/usage issues and iv) skills of the assessor. The results indicate the need for further research on the clinical utility of FCE's. A large scale quantitative study would allow results to be generalised to a wider community of FCE users.     

A pilot intervention to promote walking and wellness and to improve the health of college faculty and staff

There is a need to investigate novel interventions that promote worksite physical activity and wellness. OBJECTIVE: The authors' purpose in this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a 12-week walking program supplemented with a pedometer, computer educational program, and weekly e-mails. METHODS: College faculty and staff participated in a one-group pre-posttest study to determine whether the 12-week walking intervention had an effect on body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, blood glucose, and cholesterol. The authors also determined participant-perceived wellness effects. RESULTS: The authors observed differences between baseline and follow-up in BMI (p = .024), blood glucose (p = .06), and total cholesterol (p = .09). The program had a moderate effect on fitness, mood, health awareness, nutrition, and health. CONCLUSIONS: It is incumbent that experts develop innovative worksite physical activity and wellness programs. A pedometer-monitored walking program is one way that a worksite health initiative can improve the health and wellness of its employees and simultaneously reduce health-care costs.