Reflections on Public Sociology: Public Relations, Disciplinary Identity, and the Strong Program in Professional Sociology

Public sociology is an attempt to redress the issues of public engagement and disciplinary identity that have beset the discipline over the past several decades. While public sociology seeks to rectify the public invisibility of sociology, this paper investigates the limitations of it program. Several points of critique are offered. First, public sociology's affiliations with Marxism serve to potentially entrench existing divisions within the discipline. Second, public sociology's advancement of an agenda geared toward a "sociology for publics" instead of a "sociology of publics" imposes limitations on the development of a public interface. Third, the lack of a methodological agenda for public sociology raises concerns of how sociology can compete within a contested climate of public opinion. Fourth, issues of disciplinary coherence are not necessarily resolved by public sociology, and are potentially exacerbated by the invocation of public sociology as a new disciplinary identity. Fifth, the incoherence of professional sociology is obviated, and a misleading affiliation is made between scientific knowledge and the hegemonic structure of the profession. Finally, the idealism of public sociology's putative defense of civil society is explored as a utopian gesture akin to that of Habermas' attempt to revive the public sphere. The development of a strong program in professional sociology is briefly offered as a means to repair the disciplinary problems that are illustrated by emergence of the project of public sociology.     

Stakeholder Reporting: The Role of Intermediaries

Corporate social responsibility encompasses a multiplicity of different concepts, such that its nature is confused, and it remains difficult to operationalize because opening dialogue with and responding to the various expectations of diverse stakeholders is beyond the capacity of many companies. This paper adapts Mayston's normative “information beneficiaries” framework and focuses on intermediaries who might potentially use published financial information to open a restricted form of dialogue with companies, which might benefit unsophisticated stakeholders. The paper examines the Mayston framework using interviews conducted in organizations that might act on behalf of three stakeholder groups associated with gas and electricity suppliers in the United Kingdom, these being: consumers, employees, and the environment. While a long chain of communication exists between utility company and stakeholder, and many organizations do not fulfill their full potential as information intermediaries, there is some evidence that Mayston's framework might well operate in practice.     

On Patient Satisfaction in Cerebral Palsy Care

Correspondence to Professor W. G. Kernohan, Room 12J08, University of Ulster, Newtownabbey BT37 0QB Summary The value of managing teamwork in health care is well recognized.Yet, for a variety of reasons, it often fails to provide thedegree of support required. To investigate the capacity forall-round service provision in Northern Ireland, a survey wascarried out to obtain both quantitative and qualitative dataon the degree of social and health care support for familieswith a child affected by cerebral palsy, one of the most seriousorthopaedic disorders. Results suggest that, while clinicalmedical care is generally good, the role of social support inhealthcare management seems poorly defined, fragmented and variable.     

ADAM SMITH'S RATIONAL CHOICE LINGUISTICS

Adam Smith offers an account, based on rational choice considerations, of the grammatical change experienced by languages when adults attempt to communicate across languages in such a way as to minimize transactions costs. His model predicts what is known to linguists as a "pidgin," a language learned by adults in which to make trades. His model can be extended to predict the grammatical trajectory toward pidgin experienced by dying languages. (JEL A1, B3)     

Not Such an 'Ordinary' Relationship: the role of women support staff in relation to men with learning disabilities who have difficult sexual behaviour

This paper brings together some preliminary data on the management of men with learning disabilities who have unacceptable/abusive sexual behaviour patterns with a small pilot study which specifically explores the roles of women support workers in relation to difficult sexual behaviour. A specific focus on the behaviour of men with learning disabilities is justified because of consistent evidence that it is men, rather than women, service users who challenge services in this way. The studies explore with staff the boundaries of what is considered acceptable sexual behaviour and how breaches of these are responded to within services. One issue which we have chosen to highlight is the frequent exposure of women staff to the men's sexual behaviour, sometimes precipitated by the unusual relationship that exists between the two parties, and exacerbated by the lack of clear management guidance within the gendered hierarchies found in service agencies.     

THE MARKET FOR MOTION PICTURES: RANK, REVENUE, AND SURVIVAL

Every motion picture is an innovation that competes for theater screens and audiences during its brief life against a changing array of imperfect substitutes. We analyze a large sample of motion pictures as an evolving rank tournament of survival and death. The results indicate that the failure rate of motion pictures is time-dependent and survival time is strongly related to the number of initial bookings. Weekly box office revenue is highly convex in rank, which is consistent with Rosen's superstar phenomenon. Our results have implications for motion picture licensing arrangements, which have been severely restricted by U.S. court decisions.     

Towards Accountability in Social Work: A Case Review System for Social Workers

Summary After discussing the huge undifferentiated tasks facing socialworkers in the social services departments, it is suggestedthat one of the most urgent research needs is the developmentof systematic record and review systems to provide basic informationabout social worker activities and their effects on differentclient groups. The development of a social worker oriented computerizedCase Review System in close collaboraation with a group of fieldworkersin an area office is described. The system enables social workersto evaluate and plan their work for individual clients; it canassist the process of supervision; as a management tool it cancontribute towards the planning of fieldwork services; as aninformation system it gives an on-going account of the size,nature and scope of social work activities with different clientgroups. So far the impact of the system has been to raise questionsabout practices and to encourage a climate favourable to change.     

THE VERTICAL CHAIN OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

This paper examines the relationship between basic and applied pharmaceutical research. We focus on three stages of research and development (R & D): government-funded basic research; publication in medical journals; and industry-finded applied R&D. We estimate that a one percent increase in basic research in a particular therapeutic category causes a 0.76 percent increase in industry R&D in that category, and a 1.71 percent increase in other categories, mer seven years. We also find that research incentives differ across government, academic and industry researchers. For example, government funding favors diseases that are less prevalent and more debilitating than industry funding.