Social Network Analysis and Critical Realism

Social network analysis (SNA) is an increasingly popular approach that provides researchers with highly developed tools to map and analyze complexes of social relations. Although a number of network scholars have explicated the assumptions that underpin SNA, the approach has yet to be discussed in relation to established philosophies of science. This article argues that there is a tension between applied and methods‐oriented SNA studies, on the one hand, and those addressing the social‐theoretical nature and implications of networks, on the other. The former, in many cases, exhibits positivist tendencies, whereas the latter incorporate a number of assumptions that are directly compatible with core critical realist views on the nature of social reality and knowledge. This article suggests that SNA may be detached from positivist social science and come to constitute a valuable instrument in the critical realist toolbox.     

Stories of strangers: Writing donor acquisition letters in the human services

This study explores the choices fundraisers make in crafting letters to acquire new donors for a human services organization, and whether the type of client served affects those choices. We use an experiment to control for organizational differences, and code the resulting letters written for elements identified in theory and practice, then perform an exploratory factor analysis to find patterns of co‐occurring variables. Writers tended to focus either on the quality of the organization or the unmet need in the community, but not both. Two of the factors, Universalism and Security, describe distinct personal value constructs that may reflect the preferences of the writer or the presumed preferences of the reader. Compared to participants writing for an older adult client base, participants writing for clients with mental illness were less likely to use a negative frame, more likely to use statistical evidence, and used lower expectations in describing successful client outcomes. Within letters, clients were described using three patterns: by describing a stranger who is worth helping because of intrinsic attributes; by describing a stranger who is worth helping because of their relationships within the social order; by describing the client group using facts and statistics, rather than an emotionally compelling story narrative.     

Psychosocial factors and safety behaviour as predictors of accidental work injuries in farming

Abstract

Farming is one of the most hazardous occupations in terms of the incidence and seriousness of accidental injuries. Research with other occupational groups has drawn attention to the role of psychosocial factors and stress. Such research needs to be extended to agriculture. Since stress may be a problem faced by farmers, there is a particular need to investigate the associations between farm accidents and work stressors and stress reactions. Using multivariate logistic regression analyses, this study aimed to uncover the best psychosocial predictors of injury, while controlling for exposure-related confounders. From a randomly selected sample of 794 farms, 10% of all farms in Ringkoebing County, Denmark, 393 farmers completed completed weekly accident registration over 12 months. The study sample consisted of 310 farmers who also completed questionnaires on psychosocial factors. Results indicated that farm stressors (including perceived economic problems), stress symptoms, and safety behaviour were predictors of occupational farm accidents. Higher levels of stressors and stress symptoms and poor safety behaviour were all associated with an elevated risk of injury. In the case of stress symptoms, the relation with accidents occurred via an interaction with safety behaviour. The combination of high levels of stress symptoms and poor safety behaviour was associated with a particularly high accident risk.     

Leslie matrix models

A review of the Leslie matrix model theory and its literature 1941–1987 is presented. The point of view is that of a mathematician who focuses on the parts of the theory which are relevant to demography. Works of a decidedly applied nature are not dealt with.     

Struggles of being and becoming: A dialogical narrative analysis of the life stories of Sami elderly

The Sami are an indigenous people living in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Historically, national states have made strong efforts to assimilate the Sami people into the majority populations, and the Sami have experienced stigmatization and discrimination. However, after World War II, there has been a revitalization process among the Sami that was pioneered by the Sami Movement and gradually adopted in broader spheres of Norwegian society. The lifespans of the current cohort of elderly Sami unfold throughout a historical period in which contrasting public narratives about the Sami have dominated. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between elderly Sami's individual life stories and contrasting public narratives about the Sami. Nineteen elderly Sami individuals in Norway were interviewed. This article is a dialogical narrative analysis of the life stories of four elderly Sami. The article illuminates how individual life stories are framed and shaped by public narratives and how identifying is an ongoing process also in late life. A dialogical relationship between individual life stories and public narratives implies that individual stories have the capacity to shape and revise dominant public narratives. To do so, the number of stories that are allowed to act must be increased. A commitment in dialogic narrative research on minority elderly is to make available individual stories from the margins of the public narratives to reduce narrative silences and to prevent the reproduction of established “truths”.     

Australian child protection services: A game without end

Hansen P, Ainsworth F. Australian child protection services: A game without end This article argues that Australian child protection services are based on an error of logical typing. Across time, this has led to an over‐reliance on mandatory reporting legislation, a forensic/investigative/prosecutorial model of practice, a risk‐averse organisational culture and zero tolerance of any imperfections in parenting practices which are defined as child abuse and neglect regardless of their severity. All of these positions ignore powerful social stressors that surround complex family situations where abuse and neglect can occur. It is proposed that this error of logical typing is confirmed by the well‐documented fact that Australian child protection services have for more than two decades been unable to prevent or reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect. For this article, New South Wales is used as the exemplar state.