Studying the particular, illuminating the general: community studies and community in Wales

This article is inspired by Frankenberg's (1990 ) claim that the best way to understand general social processes is through the study of their manifestation in the details of social life. We look at how studies of community that have been carried out in Wales, particularly Village on the Border and The Family and Social Change (Rosser and Harris, 1965), have accomplished this link between the particular and the general. We then consider the findings of our own research, which is a restudy of Rosser and Harris, showing how they provide a counterbalance to grand theoretical claims about the transformations that are affecting community and family life. We find that although factors such as increasing geographical mobility and women's greater participation in paid work affect people's experiences of community, people continue to place a high value on what they call communities. Such communities are spoken about and defined in different ways but all are based on local social networks of kin, neighbours and friends and/or locally‐based associations. They are also gendered, with women playing a key role at both informal and formal levels of community. We suggest that the apparent resilience of local social relations evident in our research may help to explain the continued cultural and political resonance of community in Wales.     

Towards a Model of Positive Youth Development Specific to Girls of Color: Perspectives on Development,Resilience, and Empowerment

This paper presents a feminist theoretical model of adolescent development for girls of color, a model that can be used to critique and resist the dominant deficit-oriented perspectives about girls of color that appear in research and educational contexts. We integrate ecological, phenomenological, and critical race feminist perspectives on development and socialization and emphasize that girls’ emerging identities are complexly heterogeneous. Our model adapts the competencies of the existing positive youth development model (Lerner et al. in J Early Adolesc 25(1):10–16, 2005) by infusing them with a critical feminist lens that emphasizes critical consciousness, resistance, and resilience and allows us to specify the model to fit the experiences of and contexts in which girls of color develop. This paper includes a presentation of our conceptual model and uses qualitative data to examine how components of our model map on to the everyday experiences of Black and Latina adolescent girls and their development.     

Contextualizing Cultural Orientation and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

This research attempts a more contextualized approach to examining organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Borrowing from theory in international and cross cultural management as well as organizational behavior, context is conceptualized as multi-level and as a shaper of meaning and variability in employee citizenship behaviors. By centralizing the unique socio-cultural, political and historical national context (i.e., omnibus context) of Lebanon at the core of our theorizing, we hypothesize, contrary to previous research, a positive relationship between idiocentrism and employee engagement in organizational citizenship behaviors. Furthermore, we explore the influence that unit level OCB (i.e., discrete context) has on the idiocentrism–OCB relationship. Our analysis confirms the positive relationship between idiocentrism and OCB in this unique context. In addition, our cross-level analysis suggests that in workgroups with higher levels of unit level OCB, idiocentrism is more strongly related to employee engagement in OCB. The findings highlight the value added in contextualizing research on OCB and employee behavior in general.     

Gender,Management and Market Discourse: The Case of Gender Quotas in the Swedish and Finnish Media

In this article we present a comparative study of media texts in Sweden and Finland, two societies traditionally viewed as Nordic welfare states. Focusing on the controversial question of introducing gender‐based quotas on the boards of companies, we analyse how representations of gender and management are affected in Sweden and Finland by contemporary market discourse. We argue that market discourse takes different forms in the two societal contexts and that the space for questioning and criticizing it from a gender equality perspective remains different. Our analysis thus complements recent contributions stressing that both societal particularities and transnational processes must be considered in studies of gender and management ( Calás and Smircich, 2006 ).     

Augmented informality: South Africa's backyard dwellings as a by-product of formal housing policies

Insufficient and inadequate housing for the urban poor has a long history in South Africa, as in other African cities. Nearly one-fifth of urban households in South Africa reside in an informal dwelling. While most live in informal settlements, significant proportions have erected informal structures (essentially ‘shacks’) in the backyard of another property, a distinctly South African phenomenon. Backyard dwellings have historically been overlooked by housing policies that focus on upgrading and/or eradicating informal settlements. Previously, backyard dwellers were perceived as marginalised, living in appalling conditions and exploited by cavalier landlords. However, the post-apartheid provision of state-funded housing for the poor has altered the nature of backyard housing, creating a new class of cash-poor homeowners who are dependent on income from backyard dwellers' rent, thus ensuring a more equitable power pendulum between landlord and tenant. This paper uses research conducted in a low-income state-subsidised housing settlement in Cape Town to explore the new dimensions of informal backyard housing, both for landlords and tenants, as a consequence of South Africa's formal housing policies.     

“Basically it's the Usual Whole Teen Girl Thing”: Stage‐of‐Life Categories on a Children and Young People's Helpline

This article explores the practices of membership categorization in the interactions of clients and counselors on a national Australian helpline (Kids Helpline [KHL]) for children and young persons. Our focus is on membership categories drawn from three membership category devices (MCDs): stage‐of‐life (SOL), age, and family. Analysis draws on data across different contact modalities—email and web‐counseling sessions—to examine how category‐generated features are relevantly occasioned, attended to, and managed by the parties in the course of interaction. This shows clients' use of MCDs in presenting their trouble and building a relevant case for their grievance. By examining counselors' subsequent receipts of the clients' complaints, we are able to trace some of the cultural knowledge that the clients' categorizations make relevant to the counselors. Moreover, the analysis demonstrates how the inherent flexibility of MCDs allows counselors to exploit these same categorial resources and to re‐specify the clients' trouble in a more positive fashion to accomplish counseling work. In explicating how taken‐for‐granted notions of the lifespan as well as of family relations are mobilized by participants in KHL's sessions, the findings contribute to previous studies of social interaction in counseling, and to research on social identity and categorization more broadly.     

A systematic approach to smoking cessation activities in Danish shelters

Introduction: Shelter users have an alarmingly high smoking prevalence; our aim was to develop systematic smoking cessation activities in the shelters. Method: All available (n?=?13) shelters in Copenhagen were included. This Participatory Action Research had a development/test period and an implementation period for the revised intervention. Shelter-staff completed a questionnaire at baseline. Municipal smoking cessation counselors were trained to work with shelter users. Three types of on-site smoking cessation activities were developed and offered. Results: The estimated mean smoking prevalence in shelter users was 79%. Only two shelters ran smoking cessation activities prior to study start. All but one of the shelters implemented group-based intervention activities and approximately 13% of smokers signed-up; 26.6% of those who attended the first session were abstinent after approximately 12 weeks, as confirmed by staff. Conclusion: Smoking cessation activities in shelters are wanted by staff and shelter users, they are feasible and even very vulnerable persons are able to quit. Based on our experiences in Copenhagen shelters, we propose a systematic approach for future smoking cessation initiatives: smoking activities should be driven by the municipality, be pro-active, on-site, tailored and flexible, in addition, free nicotine therapy should be offered and trained smoking cessation counselors should be available.     

教学管理新思维:信息化管理,而非管理信息化

文章通过分析信息化管理和管理信息化的差异,提出“信息化管理”的教学管理新思维,并介绍可以支撑信息化管理模式的“心块联动”操作模型和统一数据库的软件管理系统。     

Is screening and brief advice for problem drinkers by clergy feasible? A survey of clergy

Routine screening for alcohol abuse in primary care, with brief advice to stop drinking for those screening positive, can detect individuals with alcohol problems and reduce alcohol use and alcohol induced problems in those detected. Not everyone with alcohol problems sees a physician regularly, however, and not all respond to a physician's brief advice. To explore the feasibility of expanding screening for alcohol problems to clergy, we did a mailed survey to 315 clergy at Christian churches in Cleveland, Ohio. Clergy reported a variety of views about alcohol use and abuse, but most agreed that alcoholism is a disease. They indicated counseling a significant number of parishioners, and were receptive to learning brief screening questions to detect alcohol problems. We conclude that many clergy would be interested in a strategy of screening and then giving brief advice or referral to individuals found to have alcohol problems.     

Disseminating science-based prevention: lessons learned from CSAP's CAPTs

A wide variety of prevention approaches that reduce substance use and associated problems have been developed and tested. But successes have been limited in promoting the use of these scientific advances by the policy makers, practitioners, and concerned citizens. The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention's six regional Centers for the Application of Prevention Technologies (CSAP's CAPTs) are a major mechanism by which CSAP brings research to practice. This article synthesizes the issues that the CAPTs have faced, the solutions they have developed, and conclusions concerning the work that still needs to be done to increase the application of science-based approaches to prevention. These discussions highlight the particular importance of addressing issues related to the larger systems in which prevention programs and strategies operate.