A Proposal for Public Sociology as Localized Intervention and Collective Enterprise: The Makings and Impact of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Invisible in Austin</Emphasis>

What can local public sociology look like, and what does it accomplish? This essay tracks the origins, makings and impacts of the book Invisible in Austin to evaluate its model of public sociology: as a collective enterprise with a local aim. Invisible in Austin: Life and Labor in an American City, the culmination of a three-year collaborative qualitative research project between a professor and twelve graduate students, depicts social suffering as lived for 11 individuals in Austin, Texas—a booming, highly segregated city with one of the country’s highest levels of income inequality. In its design, production, and effects, it envisions public sociology in a two-fold sense—in its joint, horizontal making, and in its intent to intervene in the local public sphere to make visible the daily lived experience of social marginality for those whose labor allows Austin to survive and thrive as a hip, creative technopolis—house cleaners, office machine repairers, cab drivers, restaurant cooks and dish washers, exotic dancers, musicians, and roofers, among them. Reflecting on the origins of the book, its joint assembling, and its outcomes thus far, we take stock of the lessons learned. In so doing, we provide a rubric for evaluating the wide spectrum of possible impacts of a public sociological intervention: through direct and indirect audience engagements, on the project’s subjects, and on local public policy. This reflection concludes with three suggestions: to approach public sociology as collective enterprise, to take narrative seriously, and to seek wide exposure.     

The role of empathy in training social work students in motivational interviewing

Motivational interviewing (MI), an evidence-based approach with empathy as a key principle, effectively addresses client concerns found in the child welfare population. Training social workers in MI, and to be empathic, would increase the likelihood of better service delivery. Live supervision (LS) is a form of training that provides real-time feedback by clinical supervisors. This randomized comparison trial compared the effectiveness of LS or Teaching as Usual (TAU) on empathy in 54 MSW and BSW social work students. TAU involved students receiving online modules and assigned readings. Data were collected at baseline, after the interventions, and at five months follow-up. Differences in perceived empathy and empathic behaviors were measured by the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity (MITI) and Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ). The study also assessed whether demographic variables or perceived empathy (TEQ) predicted empathic behaviors (MITI). Results indicate that, while both groups improved on empathy as measured by the MITI and TEQ, the LS group demonstrated more improvement. Demographic variables had no impact on empathy. The TEQ and MITI also did not demonstrate predictability suggesting the complexity of measuring empathy. The implications for social work education and future training are discussed.     

Institutional Governance of Minority Religious Practices: Insights from a Study of Muslim Practices in Danish Schools

An increasing number of studies are concerned with the ways in which the religious practices of Europe's minority populations are accommodated on the political, national and local levels. In this article, I present a case study of Muslim practices in Danish schools. The study is an investigation of how and why six selected practices are governed in Danish schools: halal food, fasting, prayer, head scarves, holidays and mosques. The results underline the importance of the specific practice in question for the way in which it is governed: some practices are easily accommodated, while others are rejected outright by the schools. Furthermore, the study demonstrates how governance of Muslim practices is developed in the absence of national regulation and against the prevailing ideals in the Danish public debate. In fact, the governance developed seems to be a direct response to the number of Muslim children in school and in line with general school ideals of inclusion. However, the results also indicate that more direct involvement by local or national authorities might push schools to be more exclusive with regard to Muslim practices.     

努力提高城市公交的服务满意度

公共交通是我国城市人民群众最主要、最基本的日常出行方式,是保证城市正常运转的民生事业。随着轨道交通的快速发展,我国一些大中城市公共交通的结构正在发生深刻的变化,常规地面公交的公共客运分担率在逐渐下降。但是,由于耗资巨大、建设周期长、受基本网络规模和运能限制,在一个相当长的时期内,轨道交通还不能成为我国城市公共交通供给的主体。地面公交仍将是大部分城市市民首选的出行工具。     

Estimating German overqualification with stochastic earnings frontiers

We estimate individual potential income with stochastic earnings frontiers to measure overqualification as the ratio between actual income and potential income. To do this, we remove a drawback of the IAB employment sample, the censoring of the income data, by multiple imputation. The measurement of overqualification by the income ratio is also a valuable addition to the overeducation literature because the well-established objective or subjective overeducation measures focus on some ordinal matching aspects and ignore the metric income and efficiency aspects of overqualification.     

Impact of Empowerment Training on the Professional Work of Family Peer Advocates

A pilot study using a prospective design examined the impact of a collaboratively developed training model, called the Parent Empowerment Program (PEP), for professionally-employed family peer advocates who work with caregivers of children with mental health needs. This training used a combination of didactic, practice exercises, and group discussion. It targeted specific mental health knowledge content and collaborative skills to facilitate the work of family peer advocates in empowering caregivers. Co-delivered by a family peer advocate and clinician, the training consisted of a 40-hour face-to-face training, followed by six monthly face-to-face booster sessions. A total of 15 advocates participated in assessments conducted at baseline and post-training. This group of experienced family peer advocates showed no significant increase in knowledge about mental health content, but post-training assessments indicated increased collaborative skills and mental health services self-efficacy. This initial evaluation has implications for expanding training and support for the emergent workforce of professionally-employed family peer advocates in children's mental health.     

Making Sense of Anarchism: Errico Malatesta's Experiments with Revolution, 1889–1900

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