The new genetics: professionals' discursive boundaries

In this paper we examine new genetics professionals’ accounts of the social context of their work. We analyse accounts given in interview by an ‘elite’ group of scientists and clinicians. Drawing on the work of Gilbert and Mulkay (1984), we consider interviewees’ discourse about knowledge, exploring the way in which they separate science from society through the use of what we have called the ‘micro/macro split’. We then go on to consider the reasons for such a discursive boundary, exploring the interviewees’ wider discourse about expertise and responsibility for the social implications of the new genetics. We argue that interviewees’ discursive boundaries allow them to appeal variously to their objectivity, to dismiss bad science and to characterize the public as ignorant. However, these discursive boundaries are permeable and flexible, and are employed to support the new genetics professionals’ role in guiding education and government policy, whilst at the same time deflecting ultimate responsibility for the use of knowledge on to an abstract and amorphous society. Responsibility is flexibly embraced and abrogated. These flexible discursive boundaries thus promote rather than challenge the cognitive authority of new genetics professionals as they engage in debates about the social implications of their work. We end by challenging the replication of these discursive boundaries, noting some of the implications of such a critique for evaluation of the new genetics.     

The Tradeoffs Associated with Rerouting Highway Shipments of Hazardous Materials to Minimize Risk

Recent legislative and regulatory activities at the federal level have focused attention on the highway routing of hazardous materials. The question is whether routes that minimize the risk of release accidents (i.e., the expected number of persons impacted by releases of hazardous materials) should be used in lieu of the routes that have the lowest operating costs. This policy issue is addressed for interstate shipments by using a national network model to determine the practical route and minimum risk route between each of 100 different origin-destination pairs (state capitals). The resulting cost-risk tradeoffs are then used to estimate the average cost of rerouting per fatality averted, the value of which turns out to be within the range of values for a number of familiar existing regulations.     

Research note: Monthly strategies for discretion: shopping for sanitary towels and tampons

Collected as part of a small-scale qualitative study of socio-cultural aspects of menstruation, interview data dealing with the task of buying sanitary towels and tampons are presented. They reveal a potentially embarrassing dilemma between an overarching requirement for discretion in menstrual matters and the necessity to ‘go public’ when shopping. Strategies for managing this dilemma form the substance of the paper.     

Unions,seniority, and public choice

This paper examines the implications of granting a seniority-based system to a union whose behavior is determined by a median voter rule. It is shown that the union will negotiate a sequence of wages that will contract union employment in each period. The model then is extended to include an active role for the firm. It is shown that when the firm has the opportunity to resist unionization, the union will not allow union employment to fall below some lower bound. This lower bound is then a steady-state equilibrium.     

Alternative systems of ethics and their application to education and evaluation

Three schools of moral thought are presented to illustrate differences in moral reasoning and the assignment of value claims. Several educational program alternatives are used as illustrations of moral reasoning within and across the schools of thought. Finally, the schools of moral thought are used in a discussion of evaluation practice. Good practice in the current evaluation literature is shown to be a blend of the three schools of thought.     

EMPHASES OF THE MAJOR FAMILY THERAPY MODELS: A FAMILY FIRO ANALYSIS

This paper analyzes 13 models of family therapy according to their special emphases on the Family FIRO model's dimensions of inclusion, control and intimacy. We first examined chapters on each model in Gurman and Kniskern's Handbook of Family Therapy; we then sent our preliminary ratings to the authors of the chapters for comment. The final conceptual analysis of the models indicated that 4 family therapy models emphasize inclusion as a primary focus, 4 emphasize control, and 5 emphasize intimacy. We also rated the secondary and tertiary emphases of the models. This analysis provides a possible guide for therapists who wish to be eclectic or integrative in their work, specifically, by suggesting a way to match therapy techniques from different family therapy models to the presenting family issues that each model emphasizes most strongly.     

Le depart des cerveaux de la cei en occident: Fuite ou mobilite? Enquetes en France

La fin du rideau de fer, l'effondrement du communisme et l'éclatement de l'URSS provoquent, depuis la fin des années 80, une nouvelle vague d'émigrations. Celle‐ci recouvre une fuite des cerveaux dont attestent tous les chiffres disponibles. Cet exode, qui prive les nouveaux Etats de la partie la plus créatrice de leur capital humain au moment où ils ont besoin pour leur reconstruction de toutes leurs forces vives, est à première vue très préoccupant. L'appréciation de ce phénomène doit cependant être nuancée. Il est en lui‐même plus complexe qu'il n'y paraît à première vue. Il a en outre des effets très differents selon les attitudes adoptées d'une part par les pays d'accueil et d'autre part par les migrants. Ce qui ressort d'enquêtes faites en France, c'est que l'ouverture des frontières et la fin de la guerre froide ont profondément changé la signification du départ. Analysé en termes de mobilité et non pas d'émigration, le phénomène actuel d'exode des cerveaux n'apparaît plus sous le même jour. La mobilité, synonyme de coopération entre l'Est et l'Ouest, peut, immédiatement ou à long terme, être très utile aux nouveaux Etats de la CEI. En ce sens, elle devrait, non pas être freinée, mais au contraire encouragée.     

"THE STORY" OF A DEATH: THERAPEUTIC CONSIDERATIONS WITH BEREAVED FAMILIES

Facilitating and listening to bereaved families tell "The Story" of their loss is an important component of therapeutic work with bereaved families. Following a discussion of the general functions of stories, the authors use a variety of case examples to illustrate how "The Story" can be used as an assessment device, as an initial intervention, and as a gauge of the progress of treatment. Family stories of loss are conceptualized as constructions, and the emphasis is on how individual and family context affect and are affected by these stories. Throughout the paper, particular attention is paid to ways stories canbe useful for children in families.     

Gerontological research on the quality of life: The Guelph satellite method

This paper describes an interdisciplinary research strategy designed to address gaps in research on the quality of life of older people. We propose that such gaps be addressed through small intensive studies, and that the limitations of such studies be addressed by combining them in phases with a panel approach in the form of “satellite” studies. The emphasis is on the intensive studies as an integral rather than a subsidiary part of the strategy, and on the panel as a vehicle for the satellite studies. As an illustration of the strategy, we describe a project in which the satellite studies focus on intensive examination of specific topics such as family relationships and the panel method employs interviews and questionnaires to collect baseline information and quality of life ratings. We then focus on methodological issues, such as participant selection and the sequencing of phases, and briefly compare the present strategy to other longitudinal approaches. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the methodological and substantive advantages of the strategy.