Patterns of practice: a reflection on the development of quantitative/mixed methodologies capturing everyday life related to water consumption in the UK

There is a growing body of research arguing the relevance of practice approaches to understand resource consumption, and to highlight alternative pathways to sustainability. These practice approaches offer an alternative conceptualisation of demand and have been demonstrated largely by qualitative research, particularly in the work on water and energy consumption in the home. However, these historical narratives and qualitative research have not, to date, lead to the development of quantitative or mixed methodologies that could potentially reflect the diversity of performances of practice across populations in a more systematic way. This paper reflects, critically, on one such attempt to scale a practice-based perspective into a quantitative survey on water consumption and practice in homes in the south and South-East of England. The use of quantitative and mixed methodology has substantial potential – from translating practice-based research to policy; developing indictors to track patterns of practices as they change over time; and the exploration of methodologies that reflect the bundling and coordination of practices associated with water use inside and outside the home. The benefits and utility of such a methodological approach are highlighted as cautions and future research directions.     

Active emotion regulation mediates links between shyness and social adjustment in preschool

Shyness is characterized by the experience of heightened fear, anxiety, and social‐evaluative concerns in social situations and is associated with increased risk for social adjustment difficulties. Previous research suggests that shy children have difficulty regulating negative emotions, such as anger and disappointment, which contributes to problems interacting with others. However, it remains unclear precisely which strategies are involved among these associations. Accordingly, the goal of this study was to explore the mediating role of emotion regulation strategies in the links between young children’s shyness and social adjustment at preschool. Participants were 248 preschool children aged 2.5–5 years. Parents rated children’s shyness and emotion regulation strategies in the context of anger and fear. Early childhood educators assessed indices of social adjustment 4 months later. Among the results, active regulation mediated associations between shyness and subsequent prosocial and socially withdrawn behaviors. Child gender further moderated these linkages, such that the model predicting socially withdrawn behavior was stronger among boys. These results expand on our understanding of emotion regulation strategies in shy children’s early socio‐emotional development.     

Developments in Neurosociology

Neurosociology is a multilevel, integrative perspective that does not replace, but rather strengthens and is strengthened by, more established sociological traditions. It is a tract of common ground with the neurosciences and other “neuro friendly” social sciences, and so it heralds an exciting period of discovery through an unprecedented synthesis of ideas. To facilitate the continued progress of neurosociology, we address two pressing goals. First, we aim to help sociologists better understand and appreciate the unique and important benefits of thinking neurosociologically. We describe several programs of research in social psychology where the benefits of a neurosociological approach are already being delivered. We show how “interdisciplinarity” involving sociology and neuroscience can (i) contribute to answering nagging questions at the nexus of method and theory, (ii) stimulate theoretical progress by allowing us to take new angles on old problems, and (iii) help us develop useful practical applications. Second, we discuss the need to make the tools of the neurosciences more accessible to sociologists. Interdisciplinary trends are occurring that will take us part of the way, but much of the work is still left to us. We provide some suggestions to help interested colleagues access the means to conduct neurosociological research.     

Discourse Failures and the NGO Sector: How Campaigning Can Undermine Advocacy

Within academic research, more and more scholars reveal the ambivalence of NGOs—the sometimes constructive, sometimes destructive role they play in solving societal problems. In this paper, we present a discourse analysis that illustrates how NGOs’ campaigning may undermine their reputation and advocacy function. We conclude that such discourse failures are frequently not merely an accidental by-product, but rather a not-intended consequence of deliberate NGOs’ campaigns. By applying ideas from political economy, we make particular note of probable discourse failures when campaigns attempt to deal with complex issues in an environment rife with wide-spread prejudices and where the NGO’s work is transparent. We present collectively institutionalized commitments for NGOs and commitment services enforced by political organizations as instruments that are suitable for increasing public accountability of the NGO sector. In conclusion, we argue that further research can benefit from systematically analyzing the interdependencies between discourses and institutions.     

Ideology,Evidence and Competing Principles in Australian Indigenous Affairs: From Brough to Rudd via Pearson and the NTER

This paper tracks the recent rise of an ‘ideology vs evidence’ discourse as a way of describing good and bad Indigenous affairs policy. It suggests that a more useful way of thinking about Indigenous affairs is the analytic of three competing principles: equality, choice and guardianship. The paper suggests that dominant debates in Indigenous affairs balance these principles and move between them over time. Using a fourfold categorisation of ideological tendencies, it also suggests that different tendencies of thought about settler society and its relations with Indigenous societies occupy different positions in relation to the three competing principles. Finally, using the work of the Northern Territory Emergency Response Review Board as an example, the paper examines the role of evidence in Indigenous affairs. Evidence, it argues, always needs to be contextualised: it is always a part of arguments or debates and needs to be understood in relation to the much larger issue of balancing competing principles.     

Web presence of universities: Is higher education sending the right message online?

Web sites of the 3738 U.S.-based colleges and universities were sampled and analyzed to determine how higher education employs the internet to communicate to key publics overall and students in particular. Analyses revealed prospective donors are the most often-targeted public followed by faculty/staff. Prospective and current students followed. In better news to students, the five items students most often seek on the Web were the five most common items linked from university home pages.     

The Americans with Disabilities Act in Federal Court: litigating against public entities

This study represents the first systematic inquiry into the outcome of litigation against state and local public entities under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. Because Congress instituted a system of judicial review that established the courts as the final authority of rights and responsibilities under the Act, Title II litigation has a potentially significant impact on the disability policymaking of state and local governments in the United States. The analysis is based on all reported federal court rulings through June 2000 in which the court adjudicated a Title II claim against a public entity. The results show that plaintiffs are moderately successful in their suits against public entities, especially when compared to their record in litigating against private employers. However, the courts, particularly at the appellate level, still exercise restraint about interfering in the disability policies of subnational governments when implementing the ADA.     

Young Adult Romantic Couples’ Conflict Resolution and Satisfaction Varies with Partner's Attention–Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Type

Attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has previously been associated with less satisfaction and success in romantic relationships. This study compares conflict resolution and problem‐solving behaviors in young adult romantic couples either having one partner with ADHD combined type (C‐couples), having one partner identified with ADHD inattentive type (IA‐couples), or in which neither partner has an ADHD diagnosis (nondiagnosed [ND] couples). Self‐reports of current and childhood ADHD symptoms corroborated diagnostic status and speaker and listener behaviors, coded via the Rapid Couples Interaction Scoring System (Gottman, 1996), were the primary dependent variables. Analyses revealed greater negativity and less positivity in C‐couples’ behavior during a conflict resolution task, relative to IA and ND couples, and this corresponded with couples’ relational satisfaction. IA‐couples emitted relational behavior that was largely similar to ND couples. Findings support that relational impairment exists in C‐couples, and to some degree, contrast with previous research suggesting that individuals with predominant inattention experience greater social impairment in adulthood than those with other types of ADHD.