A longitudinal study of family size expectations among young blacks and whites

Despite past research, there are gaps in our knowledge on the stability of family size expectations and the direction of change in expectations among different groups. In the present study, 437 low‐income respondents, both black and white, male and female, answered a question on expected family size both at high school age and four years later. Respondents varied in their consistency with 78% of those first naming one or two children, but only 9% of those expecting no children, naming the same number at the second interview. Consistency was also found to vary by sex and race. Support was found for the hypothesis that change in expectations is related to the proximity of parenthood decision.     

The National Health Act

Abstract

While increasing enrolments of international fee-paying students are a feature of the current Australian tertiary system, little research has been undertaken relating to international students studying social work. A national survey of all accredited BSW programs within Australia was undertaken in 1997 with regard to the demographic profile of international students, current provisions for them and perceptions of educators about relevant issues for consideration. The findings of this survey are presented here. Fee-paying international students represented a small proportion of total enrolments within Australian BSW programs in 1997. While educators perceived that these students did have particular educational and social challenges within Australian social work programs, few special considerations were afforded to them, although the literature would encourage us to consider this. Issues relating to the social and cultural construction of Western social work education are discussed, as well as the cultural relevance of Australian social work education for international students intending to practise social work in their countries of origin.     

HIV/AIDS and constructs of gay community: Researching educational practice within community-based health promotion for gay men

This paper reports on the methodology of a comparative study of three gay communities in Australia as they struggle with HIV/AIDS. The study focused on the pedagogy and practice of HIV/AIDS education for disease prevention and for health maintenance for people living with HIV/AIDS, through the investigation of three problematics: (1) constructs of 'community'; (2) the centrality of gay community-based health educators; and (3) the relations of gay men within and to their communities. The study was conceived of as a critical ethnography involving a three-part sample in the three sites and using three related research methods: (1) individual and group interviews; (2) textual analysis; and (3) participant observation. The theoretical bases for the study and its design lay in notions of 'performativity', community and adult education, organizational and institutional processes, and the idea of a 'post-AIDS' sociality. The methodology is explained in detail, as are various consultative processes embedded in the design to facilitate and enable a productive relationship with the communities researched.     

Accounting for ethos or programmes for conduct? The brave new world of research ethics committees

This paper examines the operation of power and its consequences arising from the growth of new ethical bureaucracies in universities. We use the UK as a case study to illustrate more general points about the globalised nature and impact of such bureaucratisation. Our focus is on the social sciences as this is where, we argue, the impact is likely to be most marked. The paper is organised in five sections. The first introduces our concerns. Section 2 traces the genealogy of these new regimes of control in the UK. We then problematise the new ethical bureaucracies, making an analysis in terms of the shift in the locus of power away from researchers to becoming centralised in bureaucratic structures. In section 4 we explore some of the ways in which researchers might respond to the changing regimes of ethical control. Finally, we offer considerations of the ways in which ethical governance of research might be differently conducted so as to avoid the adverse consequences of new regimes of control on research practice. Our aim is to provoke debate and thereby contribute to a platform from which to reassert ways to ensure that research is ethical and that do not interfere with the production and consumption of critical social science.     

Whiteness as Stigma: Essentialist Identity Work by Mixed-Race Women

Historically, in both the social sciences and the general public, racial mixing has been stigmatized. This stigmatization was fueled by whites' desire to protect their racial privileges as well as the belief that hybridization between “pure” and superior white racial stocks and inferior non-white stocks produces an inferior being. While this view has been challenged within the social sciences, the general public's sentiment toward racial mixing remains consistently negative. The low interracial marriage rate, particularly among blacks and whites, points to the lack of popular acceptance of racial mixing. This article reveals an unusual and creative reversal of the racial mixing problem by historically stigmatized mixed-race women. The women in this study reject dominant patterns of stigma by reassigning stigma to their European ancestry. Given this reversal, women articulate and embrace non-white identities. This article explains the reversal of the racial mixing problem as well as the identity work of women as they rearticulate the meaning of race and racial belonging within dominant racial logic. The identification of macro constraints and the illustration of individual agency in the negotiation of identity extends the symbolic interactionist perspective on identity formation.     

‘Young,Fun, and Free:’ Episodic Volunteers in Ghana,South Africa and Tanzania

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - As scholarship on episodic volunteering expands, researchers question if episodic volunteering is similar to, and/or...     

MOVING OUT TO MOVE UP: DUAL‐CAREER MIGRATION AND WORK–FAMILY TRADEOFFS

Using data from a survey of new entrants to the junior PhD job market in economics, this paper shows that dual‐career location problems compromise the personal and professional lives of early‐career PhDs. Contrary to the common assumption that couples who do not live together break up, we find that living apart is a viable solution to location problems in the first year after graduate school. Surprisingly, PhDs facing moderate location problems are more likely than those facing severe location problems to make career sacrifices on behalf of their relationship; PhDs facing severe location problems are more likely to live apart. (JEL, J12, J44, A11)