Editorial: Ten Years After: The Third Sector and Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

A qualitative inquiry into women’s experiences of severe maternal morbidity

Severe acute maternal morbidity (SMM) is a near-death experience during pregnancy, childbirth or termination of a pregnancy. Nine women recruited from hospital intensive care or high dependency units following the birth of their baby participated in two qualitative interviews about their SMM experience. The interpretative phenomenological analysis led to the identification of three superordinate themes related to participants: moving from a state of normal pregnancy to being severely unwell, being in critical care and returning to normal. Participants’ transition to a SMM event occurred quickly and was frightening, with participants expressing concerns about their husbands/partners’ trauma. Participants’ time in hospital was particularly hard for those separated from their baby, with this eased by staff kindness and family support. After discharge participants continued to seek explanations for their SMM. Implications include more formal support for mothering when women are in maternal critical care, and support for husbands/partners following a SMM event.     

Meaning and Identity in “Cyberspace”: The Performance of Gender,Class, and Race Online

This article explores issues of gendered, classed and raced identities using examples drawn from my research on a type of online forum known as a mud. I critique previous accounts of research regarding identity online which have suggested that online interactions encourage greater identity fluidity and multiplicity. Drawing on examples from face-to-face interviews and online interaction, I discuss several aspects of identity. I first examine participants' efforts to meet face-to-face and discuss their privileging of offline information regarding identity. Using two examples of “gender-switchers,” I then show how some participants distance themselves from experiences of gendered identities which might otherwise disrupt previously held beliefs about gender. Next I discuss classed and raced identities, which participants express in conversations about income and ethnicity. These discussions point to the interconnections between online and offline interpretations of class and race. Thus, in discussing these examples, I emphasize the need to examine not just online performances, but also the participants' interpretations of such performances. Despite the potentially disruptive effects of online ambiguity, many participants continue to believe in essence and continuity of identity.     

Editorial

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Where's the Farmer? Limiting Liability in Midwestern Industrial Hog Production

Scholars largely assume that hog production is following the same industrialization process as the integrated poultry industry. Since the collapse of hog farming in the 1990s, academics have anticipated that producers will eventually become trapped in contracts that leave the integrator with full control over the production process. Embedded in this prediction is an assumption that hog farmers respond to these productive pressures individually. Our analysis of the Carthage Management System suggests a different path for the hog commodity chain. The Carthage Management System is a conglomeration of business management firms that bring finishing hog farmers together to form limited liability corporations (LLCs) in the breed‐to‐wean stage of hog production. We use a sociology of agrifood framework to suggest that the nuances of hog production encourage the use of what we call folding corporations to limit liability in ways that profoundly transform the family farm. Corporations and individual hog farmers alike employ this creative LLC structure to deflect responsibility for the risks of hog production. We identify how folding corporations externalize the costs of production onto rural communities. Additional research is needed to better understand unfolding farmer identities, legal protections for farmers, how widespread organizational structures like Carthage Management System are, and their consequences for rural communities and the industrialization process.     

Exploring the Concept of Moral Distress with Community-Based Researchers: An Australian Study

ABSTRACT

Community-based research (CBR) refers to an applied research methodology that is conducted in community settings in partnership between academic and nonacademic participants in research. This article reports on a series of in-depth interviews conducted with 11 Australian CBR researchers between 2008 and 2009. The interviews were designed to explore whether university-employed CBR researchers experience the particular phenomenon of “moral distress,” or feelings of helplessness to act in accordance with one's moral values due to systemic or institutional constraints. Study results found that the CBR researchers experienced unavoidable moral distress at varying levels of intensity related to blurred boundaries between settings, participants, and stakeholders. Based on the outcomes of this study, further research and enhanced professional development and training practices are recommended.