Hyperrationality: Historical antecedents and contemporary outcomes within Japanese manufacturing

After World War II, the Japanese began to rebuild industrially by importing American formally rational technologies and fusing them with indigenous ones. Most importantly, they integrated formal rationality with practical, theoretical, and substantive rationalities to produce a “hyperrational” system. The synergy between these four types of rationality produced a level of rationality exceeding that found in formally rational American industry. It is argued that the growth in Japanese manufacturing can be traced to hyperrationality. In this paper, the existence of hyper‐rationality, its implications for the Japanese manufacturing sector, and possible avenues for future sociological research are demonstrated.     

Christ-Centered Therapy: Empowering the Self

Abstract

In Australia, systematic and widespread provision of family-support services is just 30 years old. The present paper traces some of the developments, recurrent tensions, and themes in family-support services, principally in Victoria, over those decades, drawing attention to challenges for social workers’ continuing participation in the development of family services.     

The Relationship Between Culture,Geographic Region,and Gender on Body Image: A Comparison of College Students in the Southeast and Pacific Northwest Regions of the United States

Body image is a significant predictor of important psychological and physical outcomes. The current study sought to expand on previous research on cross-cultural differences in body image across countries by exploring differences in body image based on geographic region within the United States. A sample of 1,365 participants was recruited from universities in the Southeast and Pacific Northwest regions of the United States. Participants completed a survey that assessed their gender, geographic region, and body image. Women reported poorer body image than men, and young adults from the Southeast reported poorer body image than young adults from the Pacific Northwest. There were significant interaction effects for gender and geographic region with women from the Southeast reporting the poorest body image of any group. The authors suggest that sociocultural differences in standard of beauty in the Southeast as well as differences in dress related to climate may contribute to the findings.     

Quantifying Littered Cigarette Butts to Measure Effectiveness of Smoking Bans to Building Perimeters

Abstract

Objective: The authors estimated the number of violations of a university policy that prohibited smoking within 25 ft of all campus buildings. Participants: The project was conducted by 13 student researchers from the university and a member of the local public health department. Methods: Students quantified cigarette butts that were littered in a 30-day period inside the prohibited smoking area of 7 campus buildings (large residential hall, small residential hall, administrative building, 2 academic buildings, campus cafeteria, and student union). Results: Investigators found a total of 7,861 cigarette butts (large residential hall: 1,198; small residential hall: 344; administrative building: 107; 2 academic buildings: 1,123 and 806; campus cafeteria: 2,651; and student union: 1,632). Conclusions: Findings suggest that there is low compliance with the university's smoking policy. The described project may be repeated by students at other universities as a method to advocate for policy change.     

Further Beyond the Durkheimian Problematic: Environmental Sociology and the Co‐construction of the Social and the Natural

The biophysical environment is not tangential to the social; it is only tangential to conventional sociological thought. Environmental sociology arose in the 1970s based on this presupposition, but over time theory and empirical research have generally adopted a social constructionist or natural realist approach. Despite rejection of the Durkheimian dictum of explaining social facts through the invocation of other social facts, and thus refusal to presuppose human exemptionalism from ecological constraints, scholarship continues to reflect this nature/culture divide. When environmental sociologists focus on one side or the other of the nature/culture divide, the intertwining and conjoint constitution of the social and the biophysical–material is obscured. The intent of the present essay is to articulate a co‐constructionist ontological position sensitive to the temporal emergence of hybridity between the social and the natural and amenable to recognition of salient dynamics not readily envisioned from either side of the nature/culture divide. In doing so, the argument builds upon prior metatheoretical scholarship in environmental sociology and science and technology studies and highlights ontological conundrums that must be confronted in order to further the move toward a viable co‐constructionist posture.     

WHOS EMMA AND THE LIMITS OF CULTURAL STUDIES

Cultural studies is a response to political crisis: it is the institutional memory of failed revolutions. Can cultural studies move beyond memory to action? This article describes the writer's involvement in a non-profit, volunteer-run punk storefront in Toronto.     

Characteristics of female perpetrators of domestic violence in group therapy

This report is based on a set of clinical observations that identified unique characteristics of 12 female perpetrators of domestic violence in court ordered 52‐week group treatment. The observations are primarily based on the experiences of two therapists who treated a group of 12 female participants, concurrent with two male groups, each of which consisted of 10 participants. A number of comparative clinical observations are made in relation to the treatment of these male and female perpetrators. The group leaders identified three characteristics specific to female perpetrators of domestic violence: compulsive and premature disclosure by more than half the participants in the woman's group, versus minimal or deferred disclosure in the men's groups; perception of self as perpetrator and ambivalent perception of self as victim in the women's group, versus perception of self as either victim or perpetrator in the men's groups; and devaluation of self in the women's group, versus devaluation of the partner in the men's groups. The group leaders also observed that the perceptions and attitudes of the younger, poorer, less well‐educated participants often conflicted with those of their more affluent counterparts.

Therapists who treat mandated perpetrators of domestic violence in groups must contend with direct expressions of hostility. They must also help clients recognize and understand reasons for their dysfunctional partnerships and begin to think about how they can develop healthier relationships. The clinical observations from this group strongly suggest that psychological and socio‐economic factors interact to significantly influence treatment process and outcomes.     

Social Context of Service Use Among Homeless Youth in Los Angeles,California

ABSTRACT

Little is known about rates and correlates of service use or the role that social context plays in service engagement among homeless youth. This study compares two distinct service areas and uses a social network approach to examine how environmental factors (e.g., neighborhood), social factors (e.g., social capital and network engagement) and individual level factors that relate to service use patterns among homeless youth in Los Angeles, California. A sample of 938 youth was recruited from three drop-in centers in two distinct service sites. Individuals were surveyed about their individual and social network attributes. Univariable and multivariable analyses were utilized to understand the influence of social-contextual variables on service use. Service use behaviors varied across site and service type with youth in Hollywood showing greater engagement than youth at the Beach site. Across both sites and several service types, staff emotional support was positively correlated with levels of service use. The site comparisons also point to the fact that even within a single geographic area, like Los Angeles County, client profiles and rates of service use can significantly vary. Future research needs are presented with specific emphasis on understanding the needs of non-service-seeking youth.     

Beyond Welfare Regimes: From Empirical Typology to Conceptual Ideal types

The welfare regime concept introduced by Gøsta Esping‐Andersen in 1990 is still widely used in comparative political research, although it has been challenged extensively both on empirical and analytical grounds. Besides the fact that many empirical welfare states seem to be hybrid cases of the established welfare regime categories, the argument that welfare regimes exist not only at the country level but also at the local level and at the level of particular welfare programmes has recently gained momentum in the academic literature. In this article, it is argued that the welfare regime concept should be stripped of its historical‐geographical connotations and turned into an ideal‐typical approach. To this end, a three‐dimensional model is proposed here that allows for analyzing the attributes of welfare states, welfare regions and welfare programmes on three analytical dimensions: welfare culture, welfare institutions and socio‐structural effects.