The Varieties of Religious Significance: An Idiographic Approach to Study Religion's Role in Adolescent Development

We present a rationale and method for taking an idiographic approach to study the role religion plays in adolescent development. We theorize that adolescents harness qualitatively different aspects of religion to address idiosyncratic developmental needs. Therefore, analyzing religion's role in adolescent development necessitates a case‐by‐case holistic analysis. We introduce a systematic method using narratives to identify the personal ways that individuals attribute meaning in general and regarding religion in particular. We present three detailed case studies from a sample of 20 religious Israeli Jewish Orthodox emerging‐adult women who provided retrospective narrative accounts of their general and religious development through adolescence. Systematic analysis reveals that religion was significant to these women in diverse and personal ways, addressing markedly different adolescent developmental needs.     

Flexible Production on the Working Waterfront: The Social Origins of the Northwest Atlantic Sea Urchin Industry*

Abstract In 1986 the northwest Atlantic sea urchin was little more than a nuisance to local fishermen. Six years later, sea urchins were the second most valuable fishery in Maine, next the lobsters. This paper examines the initiation and early development of the northwest Atlantic sea urchin industry. The industry is unique because of its quick growth and its reliance on international markets. On the basis of ethnographic research, I examine the ability of firms already working in in‐shore fisheries to adapt to the introduction of international markets for a new product. Institutional arrangements of the working waterfront facilitate these adaptations through technological and social flexibility. In addition, flexible adaptation to the sea urchin market was not inhibited by existing formal or informal institutions. This analysis of the sea urchin industry and the working waterfront contributes to current discussions about small‐firm networks and the economic sociology of industries.     

Explaining Citizens’ E-Participation Use: the Role of Perceived Advantages

This article analyzes some of the reasons people choose e-participation over traditional involvement forums as a way of having public policy input. The research aimed to see whether people perceived that e-participation has time, cost, quality, and transparency advantages over traditional participation channels which some researchers have suggested is the case. The study also wanted to investigate whether perceiving one or more of these advantages has an impact on whether a person uses e-participation. Using data from the 2012 EU eGovernment Benchmark-User survey we found that people who perceive these advantages are more likely to use e-participation but the various advantages have different impacts. Saving time has the strongest impact on use. Perceiving quality and transparency advantages also impacts use, but a perceived cost advantage does not. In addition, we found that people are more likely to use e-participation if they are satisfied with a jurisdiction’s website and application design. These findings have implications for how governments should design and market websites if they want to increase e-participation.     

New Public Management and Principals’ Roles in Organizational Governance: What Can a Corporate Issue Tell us About Public Sector Management?

The article analyzes debates between institutional investors and corporate management as a way of investigating accountability issues in organizations with dispersed principals. By exploring issues at stake in entrepreneurial management in any organization with multiple owner/principals, the narrative adds to the critique of public-sector entrepreneurial management from an unusual vantage point.     

Occupational and Religious Mobility in a Small City

Previous studies have suggested a relationship between occupational and religious mobility, namely, that the later should follow upon the former in order to provide the mobile individual with a more socially congruent context. The greater the distance of occupational mobility, therefore, the more likely is religious mobility to occur. Analysis of data from a telephone survey of a small Midwestern city reveals that occupational and religious mobility are not related per se; there is, however, a significant relationship between occupational mobility distance and religious mobility. Education is also significantly and positively related to occupational mobility. Highly educated individuals who are occupationally mobile across a great distance are the most religiously mobile group of all. There is also a tendency for the religiously mobile to move into high status Protestant denominations or out of the Christian religion altogeher; this pattern is intensified among those who are highly mobile occupationally. The results suggest that religious mobility is a coping mechanism rather than a search for a more socially congruent context.     

Educating Administrators to Interact with Citizens: A Research Note

This article examines the place of citizen participation courses in American Masters of Public Administration programs. A survey of course syllabi shows that very few programs provide courses that focus on citizen participation. While the evidence on course content is more ambiguous, course goals tend to focus on imparting cognitive knowledge rather than developing skills or engendering psychological transformation—outcomes that may be key to having administrators who are comfortable working with citizens. An argument is made for a more visible place for citizen-participation courses to show that the ability to involve citizens is part of administrative competence.     

Replacing revolving door: a collaborative approach to treating individuals in crisis

The Crisis Assessment and Psychiatric Emergency Services (CAPES) unit was designed to improve the quality of psychiatric treatment, contain costs, and provide relief to overburdened psychiatric inpatient and emergency services in Delaware. This innovative program is the result of collaboration between public and private agencies to treat individuals in crisis. The myriad factors that contributed to a broken system and instigated Delaware's search for a solution are discussed in this article. The CAPES unit has resulted in improved communication among providers, decreased committal rates, better linkage to appropriate levels of care, increased safety, and improved coordination of services. Clinical implications for nursing practice include providing more holistic care in a safer environment.