Attitudes of Japanese and American Workers: Convergence or Diversity*

Testing an argument of convergence on a sample of employed males in Japan and the United States, this paper compares young: (18–24 years) with older (45–55 years) workers within each country on work-related attitudes, education and employment, mobility, interest in the company, characteristics of superiors, and job satisfaction. Comparisons of these attitudes are also made within age-group cross-nationally. Our general finding, which is upheld when company size, type of job, and educational attainment, are controlled for, is that cultural diversity is (still) a better explanation than convergence when applied to work-related attitudes. Aging per se seems to have some similar effects in both societies, e.g., a positive relationship beween age and work satisfaction. Attitudes affected more by historical changes in work organization, however, exhibit stronger cultural differences than age differences.     

Mentoring adolescent foster youth: promoting resilience during developmental transitions

The current exploratory study used quantitative and qualitative data from an evaluation of the ‘Advocates to Successful Transition to Independence’ programme, a mentoring programme designed to train mentors to assist older adolescent foster youth in acquiring skills and resources needed for successful transition out of foster care and into adulthood. The study was conducted in two phases over 2 years. Quantitative methods were used to describe characteristics of the older adolescent foster youth and advocates, and qualitative methods were used to describe the experiences of youth and advocates in the programme. Results suggest that the use of a mentoring programme for older adolescent foster youth represents a particularly beneficial prevention strategy that may help prevent negative outcomes as youth emancipate from the foster care system and transition into young adulthood. Implications and recommendations for developing mentoring programmes for transition‐aged youth are presented.     

Nonmarital cohabitation

On the basis of a national random sample survey of 2143 men and women, it is estimated that 890,000 couples were living together unmarried in the United States as of January 1976. A comparison of cohabiting and married respondents indicated that cohabitors are younger, less religious, and more likely to be divorced than their married counterparts. Few differences were found between marrieds and cohabitors with regard to decision-making power, division of labor, openness of communication, and satisfaction with the relationship. However, the duration of the cohabiting relationship was found to be significantly shorter than that of marital relationships.     

The putting-out system: Transitional form or recurrent feature of capitalist production?

The putting-out system has frequently been described in accounts of rural domestic industry during the European industrial revolution as a transitional form of production relations accompanying the development of full-fledged capitalism. In this article, the authors argue that the putting-out system is a relatively enduring feature of capitalist production, appearing in various times and places under conditions which can be specified through comparative analysis. To contribute to such specification, we systematically analyze the similarities and differences between the putting-out system in the contemporary hammock industry in Yucatan and in earlier European cases.     

Study Abroad Ghana: An International Experiential Learning

The global nature of social problems indicates how important it is for social workers to be involved in international issues. For example, overseas experience in social work programs is in consonance with the Council on Social Work Education's emphasis on global context of social work practice. In view of this, some schools of social work are facilitating international experience for their students and faculty. This article discusses the experiences of U.S. students who studied abroad in Ghana in summer 2010, under the University Studies Abroad Consortium (USAC). It specifically examines the impact the USAC Ghana program, the people and culture of the host country, intracountry trips/tours, and the social work courses had on the student participants.     

“Once in a Blue Moon … Anything is Possible”

Each of the articles in this volume highlights concerns and issues related to cultural diversity and community development. Together they provide significant guidance for further work in theory construction and curriculum development, and offer direction for effective practice and research. Leadership development, self-help, and empowerment practice approaches are presented for work in communities of color and neo-gemeinschaft communities. Effective methods and strategies for working with diverse populations in changing social and economic times are provided for community practitioners and faculty.     

The Old is New Again

Community agriculture and conservation initiatives have become increasingly important components of sustainable community development strategies, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods. This study examines a community conservation program whose goal was to foster revitalization through the establishment of floral and vegetable gardens primarily in distressed areas. Respondents indicated that the program contributed to revitalizing neighborhoods, as well as their beliefs and behavior regarding conservation issues, sense of community, and volunteerism. Motivation for involvement in the program was high. The most important reasons for involvement were to beautify and give back to the community and to support conservation of green space. The more volunteers were engaged in the program, the greater their motivation, conservation ethic, and volunteerism in other community activities. This study illustrates the importance of community gardening and conservation efforts in improving and beautifying distressed communities, promoting sustainable community development, and increasing civic engagement and conservation practices. Implications for practice are also discussed.     

Assessing Life in the Face of Death: Moral Drama at the 1952 Trial of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee

ABSTRACT

The essay is a close analysis of the text of the 1952 secret trial of the members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAFC). The trial was an occasion of high drama in which many of the participants, facing death, responded with speeches and spontaneous outbursts that could not serve as any imaginable defense, but constituted a moral evaluation of their lives. This behavior was much unlike anything seen in the Soviet show trials of the 1930s. Though many JAFC defendants exhibited aspects of public self-examination and contrarian pride in their own self-worth, the three most persistent were Lina Shtern, Boris Shimeliovich, and Solomon Lozovsky.     

“Rather a manager and networker than a researcher”: converging technologies in the clinic

Technological developments brought about new approaches to and new insight into the functioning of the brain and neurological disorders. More specifically, advancement in the areas of neuroimaging, genomic technologies and molecular biology is conceived as a pathway to more differentiated diagnosis and appropriate treatment. In this regard, the convergence of technologies in the area of health care and medical research has significantly increased during the past two decades. The aim of this article is to better understand how the convergence of technologies in the field of neuroscience takes place at the micro-level of knowledge production, namely the clinic. It is based on the results of an ethnographic study conducted at an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit in Vienna. I start from the assumption that the convergence of technologies in the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy anticipates a specific means of knowledge production that impacts on the understanding and definition of neurological conditions and the identity of patients and medical doctors simultaneously. One important result concerns the scientization of the way that people with epilepsy perceive, explain and understand epilepsy and the brain. On the one hand respective narratives seem to support the scientific definition of epilepsy; on the other, the failure of seizure control tends to induce a specific understanding of the brain as having unpredictable and uncontrollable mastery over body, memory and soul.     

The epistemic and strategic dimension of the establishment of the IPBES: “epistemic selectivities” at work

The economic valuation of biodiversity and related market-based policy instruments are increasingly being referred to in the international politics of biodiversity and related Multilateral Environmental Agreements. They are both the subject of diverging interests, hence leading to conflict and critique, and an impetus for compromise on the way toward a “reasonable” solution to the environmental and economic crises. This development coincides with an extensive debate on how to increase the profile of biodiversity science and make it more policy relevant. This article takes a close look at decision-making processes leading to the establishment of the Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Particular emphasis is placed on the implicit and explicit conflicts around the significance attached to the concept of ecosystem services within the IPBES debate. The article is based on the assumption that struggles over biodiversity knowledge become marginalized in favor of a stabilization of the “global paradigm of valorization.” In this vein, the concept of ecosystem services contributes to sustaining the rationale that biodiversity can only be preserved if its diverse elements are commodified. This is theoretically underpinned by the concept of “epistemic selectivities,” and I discuss its contribution to the understanding of the role of knowledge in institutional change.