Popular attitudes to the transition to a market economy in the Soviet Union on the eve of reform

This paper surveys a wide range of Soviet opinion poll data, mostly collected between the middle of 1990 and the middle of 1991, to investigate attitudes to the transition to the market economy. The majority of the population welcomed the transition to a market economy as the only means of freeing themselves from an oppressive system, and were willing to pay a high price for their liberation, but they were not willing to exchange one form of exploitation for another.     

Leunig Cartoons As Therapeutic Letters Crafting a Viable Therapeutic Focus for Change

This paper describes the use of Leunig cartoons as therapeutic letters. The paper proposes the use of the cartoons in the facilitation of establishing a viable therapeutic focus. The method illustrates principles focused on avoiding expert/non-expert dichotomies while crafting an appropriate focus for the therapy. The paper illustrates how the cartoons can be used to add complexity to the understanding of relevant therapeutic themes, while avoiding some of the change-inhibiting processes involved in identification of problematic cognitive processes and frames of meaning.     

Professionals, Mentally Handicapped Children and Confidential Files

The professional files kept on E.S.N.(S) children contain self-contradictory justifications for school placements; damaging social stereotyping; moral evaluations of families; professional procedures involving circularity of thought, and attempts by professionals to protect themselves from the types of abuse to which they submit the children and their parents. On the basis that confidentiality offends both quality of information and basic human rights, the abolition of such confidential or secret files is demanded.     

Forensic sociology: Some cautions and recommendations

This paper uses a research experience involving change-of-venue research and jury work in a mass murder case as a vehicle for discussing a number of problem areas in forensic sociology. Included are discussions of time pressures, secrecy, special methodological problems, and the issue of researcher privilege and dealing with subpoenas. A number of recommendations are made to those planning to become involved in forensic sociology, including having access to legal counsel and special precautions to protect confidential sources. James T. Richardson, a professor of sociology at the University of Nevada-Reno, recently graduated from the Nevada School of Law and passed the Nevada Bar exam. He is a founder of Litigation Technologies, Inc., and is a co-owner of Market Systems Research, Inc. K. Gregory Swain and Jeffrey Codega are co-owners of Market Systems Research, Inc. and of Litigation Technologies, Inc. Kenneth Bazzell is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Nevada-Reno.     

Reli(e)ving the Past: Emotion Work in the Holocaust's Second Generation

Although most studies of the Second Generation typically account for their social psychological orientations by relying on psychiatric and psychological models, I propose an alternative “listening” to this cohort. I analyze in‐depth interviews by adopting Hochschild's insights on emotion work as a sensitizing framework and suggest that (1) four interrelated types of “deep acting” they continuously feel compelled to perform can account for the psychological “symptoms” commonly attributed to them and (2) these types of deep acting constitute adjustments and reactions to problematic emotional dynamics characterizing their survivor families. I conclude with a discussion of the reciprocal effects of this emotion work.     

Opportunity for Childcare: The Impact of Government Initiatives in England upon Childcare Provision

This paper considers the impact of recent government initiatives upon childcare provision for children under the age of five. It is based upon interviews with parents and providers from two contrasting wards in Liverpool. The aim of the research was to identify key issues and concerns with regard to childcare, and perceptions about the impact of developments within social security and education provision. Government policies have concentrated on supporting working parents who need to pay for formal childcare, and on providing an earlier start to the formal education of young children. There is a fear that this focus may be failing to recognize and support the diversity of families and their childcare needs.     

The regulation of American foundations: Looking backward at the Tax Reform Act of 1969

The American Tax Reform Act of 1969 represented a major watershed in the law of philanthropy, introducing a new classification scheme —one that sharply distinguished between ‘private foundations’ and other charitable organisations- and, for the private foundation category, a new regulatory system, new regulatory sanctions, a new tax on investment income and new restricitons on the deductibility of property gifts. After briefly tracing the origins of this legislation, the paper sets forth five norms that should characterise the legislative process, and proceeds to explore, albeit in abbreviated fashion, the extent to which each of these norms was respected by the Congress in 1969. The paper then turns from an examination of regulatory principles to a consideration of regulatoryimpacts, dealing with several ways in which the 1969 Act appears to have caused diversion of resources, including: diversion of charitable giving from foundations to non-foundation charities (with consequences for the ‘birthrate’ of foundations); diversion of resources from charitable to non-charitable uses; diversion of funds from charitable channels to the US Treasury; and a diversion of resources from certain grantees to others. The mitigating effects of recent forms of deregulation are described, followed by the suggestion that more deregulation is desirable, in order to sustain the health and strength of America's private foundation sector. This paper has its origins in a talk (never published) that was given at a conference entitledTwenty Years Under the 1969 Act: Private Foundations 1969–1989, held on 2 May 1989 at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.     

The Impact of the Rural Population Component on Homicide Rates in the United States: A County-Level Analysis

Abstract Using 3,130 U.S. counties or county equivalents, this paper provides a test of the impact of rural population on the violent crime of homicide, while controlling for the effects of other correlates. The results indicate that the traditional bond of group cohesion assumed to be associated with the rural environment and its residents continues to have an inhibiting effect on homicide for counties in the United States.     

Symbols of Collective Memory: The Social Process of Memorializing May 4, 1970, at Kent State University

Monument and memorial building is one of the more dramatic forms of symbolic expression. This form of symbolic expression represents aspects of a community's collective history; and its existence thereby serves to crystallize consensus and solidarity. The building of the memorial is a dialectic of symbolic interaction explicated through use of a social process model. This article will first describe the theoretical issues involved with collective representation and memory. The theoretical base when applied to the activity of memorial building generates a social process model. The model is described by application to the building of various memorials, but particular interest will be focused upon the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D. C. The model suggests how creation of this type of symbolic work involves a complicated organization of social norms or conventions. Part of this organization involves merging norms from a specialized genre of the art world with norms of collective representation residing in the non-professional community. Administrative bureaucracies and political institutions play important roles as well. After the authors explicate the social process model, they apply it to the experience of memorializing students killed and wounded at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. Erection of this memorial involves a process of constructing collective memory in such a way as to create moral unity within the community.