SHORT REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Paul Demeny and Geoffrey Mcnicoll (eds.), Encyclopedia of Population Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild (eds.), Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, World Agriculture: Towards 2015/2030: An FAO Perspective and Summary Report Jeanne X. Kasperson and Roger E. Kasperson, Global Environmental Risk Richard Lynn, Eugenics: A Reassessment Douglas W. Maynard, Hanneke Houtkoop‐Steenstra, Nora Gate Schaeffer, and Johannes van der Zouwen (eds.), Standardization and Tacit Knowledge: Interaction and Practice in the Survey Anthony M. Messina (ed.), West European Immigration and Immigrant Policy in the New Century     

A Two-Phase Exact Algorithm for MAX-SAT and Weighted MAX-SAT Problems

We describe a two-phase algorithm for MAX-SAT and weighted MAX-SAT problems. In the first phase, we use the GSAT heuristic to find a good solution to the problem. In the second phase, we use an enumeration procedure based on the Davis-Putnam-Loveland algorithm, to find a provably optimal solution. The first heuristic stage improves the performance of the algorithm by obtaining an upper bound on the minimum number of unsatisfied clauses that can be used in pruning branches of the search tree.We compare our algorithm with an integer programming branch-and-cut algorithm. Our implementation of the two-phase algorithm is faster than the integer programming approach on many problems. However, the integer programming approach is more effective than the two-phase algorithm on some classes of problems, including MAX-2-SAT problems.     

Parental substance misuse and child care social work: findings from the first stage of a study of 100 families

Parental misuse of drugs or alcohol is known to be a common issue for child care social workers, yet there has been surprisingly little British research on the topic. The study reported here attempts to address this gap. All files going for long‐term allocation in four London boroughs over on average 1 year were examined (290 files). Parental substance misuse (PSM) emerged as a major feature of social work caseloads. Of the 290 cases, 100 (34%) involved concerns about parental substance misuse. The families involving substance misuse were more vulnerable on a variety of measures: the children were younger, the parents had more individual problems and the families lived in more difficult social situations. PSM cases tended to be ‘heavy end’ at the point of allocation: they accounted for 62% of all children subject to care proceedings and 40% of those placed on the child protection register. There was a fairly even spread between alcohol and drug misuse, and a number of cases involved both. Substance misuse specialists were rarely involved in working with families, primarily because parents said that they did not think that they had a problem. Suggestions for ways in which policy and practice with PSM might be improved are made in light of these findings.     

Constructing Scale/Contesting Scale: Women's Movement and Rescaling Politics in Quebec

Scalar shifts in public capacities and responsibilities arean important element of the way states have been restructuringin North America and in Europe. Women’s movements respondto these changes in various ways, including the rescaling ofcollective action. This article focuses on the rising importanceof the (subprovincial) region in Québec women’smovement politics to understand how new scales of action areconstituted or granted a renewed importance by women’smovements. Drawing on theoretical contributions from the humangeography literature on scale, state rescaling, and scalar politics,I show how the region has been materially and discursively constructedby Québec women’s movement actors as a legitimateand relevant scale for feminist politics. This has involvedan intricate and dynamic relationship with two different stateprojects of downward rescaling. Although it provided some realopportunities, it has also created difficulties and dilemmasfor women’s movement actors, who have also contested theprimacy of the region in Québec government’s newscalar arrangements.     

Beyond the Binaries: Depolarizing the Categories of Sex,Sexuality, and Gender*

Most sociological research designs assume that each person has one sex. one sexuality, and one gender, congruent with each other and fixed for life. Postmodern feminists and queer theorists have been interrogating bodies, desires, and genders, but sociology has not. Deconstructing sex, sexuality, and gender reveals many possible categories embedded in social experiences and social practices. As researchers, as theorists, and as activists, sociologists have to go beyond paying lip service to the diversity of bodies, sexualities, genders. The sociologist's task should be to deconstruct the conventional categories of sex, sexuality, and gender and build new complex, cross-cutting constructs into research designs. There are revolutionary possibilities inherent in rethinking the categories of gender, sexuality, and physiological sex. Sociological data that challenge conventional knowledge by reframing the questions could provide legitimacy for new ways of thinking. Data that undermine the supposed natural dichotomies on which the social orders of most modern societies are still based could radically alter political discourses that valorize biological causes, essential heterosexuality, and traditional gender roles in families and workplaces.     

Canonical correlation analysis of residential and vocational outcomes following psychiatric rehabilitation

This analysis uses canonical correlation techniques to explore client outcomes following psychosocial rehabilitation services in two rehabilitation areas: vocational and residential. At issue are the ways in which these two outcomes are affected by a series of eight client characteristics and service delivery features. The overarching question is the effectiveness of the program in establishing independence vocationally and residentially, and whether the same set of factors influences these two outcomes for persons with mental illness. Subjects were 212 ex-clients of a psychosocial rehabilitation agency who were working six months after leaving the program. The analysis derived two canonical functions both of which were significant. Canonical loadings and cross loadings indicated that client level of functioning and program tenure loaded most strongly with residential status on the first canonical variate while education loaded most strongly with salary on the second. These results support the notions that different predictors account for the variance associated with different outcomes following psychosocial rehabilitation. Discussion of the relevance of strong predictor variables highlights ways they can impact program design. Finally, the usefulness of canonical correlation in longitudinal program evaluation research is explored.