INEQUALITY OF SUBJECTIVE WELL‐BEING AS A COMPREHENSIVE MEASURE OF INEQUALITY

The link between happiness and overall inequality is best studied using an index that incorporates different aspects of inequality, and is measured consistently in different countries. One such index is the degree to which happiness itself varies among individuals. Its correlation with both happiness levels and social trust is substantially stronger than the corresponding correlation for income inequality. This remains so after allowing for bounded scale reporting, including a purely ordinal measure of dispersion. Moreover, the correlation is stronger for individuals who profess to care most about inequality. The link between happiness and inequality may thus be stronger than previously appreciated. (JEL I31, D6, D63, D31)     

Transitioning from ‘outside observer’ to ‘inside player’ in social work: practitioner and student perspectives on developing expertise in decision-making

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on a six-year qualitative study of social workers’ perspectives on factors influencing decision-making in children and families social work in England. Data collected between 2010 and 2016 reflect frontline practice during a period of substantial change and reform in UK social work. This paper builds on an earlier analysis with data from all three stages of the study capturing the lived experiences of practitioners ranging from student social workers to qualified advanced practitioners in management roles. Data from 9 focus groups comprising 51 participants were analysed using grounded theory. Data analysis generated four representative categories: developing agency in the social work role; troubling emotions; transitions in the development of expertise and the impact of organisational cultures in children and families social work services. An emerging theoretical framework is presented. This identifies the significance of transitions and threshold concepts in the development of the social work professional from the role of students as ‘outside players looking in’ through to the expertise of qualified practitioners as ‘inside players’ within organisations. Recognising periods of liminality, transitional learning and uncertainties in developing decision-making expertise may be of significant benefit to social work education and the profession.     

Ride-on lawnmowers warnings: slope measurements and safety-by-separation

Various single-rider open vehicles, such as lawnmowers, are susceptible to overturning on slopes that are too steep for them. Warnings have included separation from the vehicles and avoiding slopes that are too steep. A recommended maximum slope is commonly 15 degrees. However, many individuals cannot evaluate slopes just by sight. Some mower manufacturers have warned about too steep slopes and have provided slope gauges for users to determine the slopes in natural settings. This article evaluated the usefulness of such gauges for users who might be expected to need to evaluate slopes and the efficacy of a separation procedure for avoiding injuries. It was concluded that neither of these were likely to be successful and suggestions are made for alternative approaches.     

“Coming From the Place of Walking with the Youth—that Feeds Everything”: A Mixed Methods Case Study of a Runaway and Homeless Youth Organization

Organizations for runaway and homeless youth (RHY) provide essential services to highly vulnerable youth who have a wide variety of basic needs and complex psychosocial challenges. We present a mixed-methods case study of an RHY organization to identify the specific mechanisms and processes by the organization successfully promotes engagement and positive development of the youth they serve. We analyzed qualitative and quantitative data separately and then integrated these two strands of data. Our findings indicate a consistent convergence of responses across the data sources, in both the qualitative and quantitative strands, that consistently reflect the organization’s youth-centered approach. Primary among these policies and practices is the emphasis on building and maintaining empathetic relationships with youth, the promotion of youths’ autonomy, and an institutional culture of continuous evaluation of how the organization is meeting their mission to provide services that reflect best practices.     

Sexuality,Technology, and Sexual Scandal in The Good Wife

Inspired by the CBS drama The Good Wife, this article explores sexuality, new media, and scandal in contemporary American culture. Focusing on real life sex scandals as well as those fictionalized on the show, it argues that sexuality is lived and experienced in mediated terms. The Good Wife focalizes these understandings by concentrating on the experiences of the wronged wife, yet at the same time pushes back against the notion that sexual publicity can arrive at a “truth” of sex, using a literal language of negation and a visual language of barriers and blockages in order to make this case. By emphasizing the enigmatic qualities of personal desire and sexual exchange, The Good Wife reformulates silence as a strategy, transmuting it into an ethos of deliberate unknowability.     

Religion, Religiosity, and Nonmarital Sexual Conduct: An Application of Reference Group Theory

Using the framing process of "partial-birth" abortion (PBA) as an exemplifying case, this paper proposes a dialogic model of framing in which meaning is created and recreated through an iterative, discursive process. Materials developed by six social movement organizations that lead the PBA framing process were analyzed to chronicle the evolution of the PBA frame, as well as factors that influenced this evolution. Movement and countermovement actors attempted to imbue PBA with meaning in such a manner as to motivate and direct action to support their overarching political goals. Rather than two distinct parallel frames battling against each other, this process is better conceptualized as the evolution of a single frame, created in interaction with the framing of one's opponents. A dialectic model of framing provides a framework for examining the process by which cultural meanings are contested and how these meanings are transformed through collective action. Such a model also potentially expands the definition of successful frame and better illuminates the symbiotic relationship between movements and countermovements actors.     

The Islamic Crescent: Islam,Culture and Globalization

This paper is an interdisciplinary consideration of Islam in general, and of Islam within the Islamic crescent in particular. Scholarly approaches to the study of Islam are explored, as well as the unity and commonality of attitudes and sentiments that exists right across the Islamic world. This last point is contrasted with differences within Islamic countries in the crescent, particularly in the context of culture. Indeed, this paper stresses the need to understand the relationship between culture and Islam. The paper concludes with an analysis of Islam and globalization, paying particular attention to modernization and Islamic identity.     

Trapped in Space? Children's Accounts of Risky Environments

The purpose of this article is to explore children's perceptions and experiences of safety and risk in one highly contested interface area in Belfast. Interface areas are landscapes divided by physical and symbolic boundaries on the basis of religious/ethno‐national identification. The research draws on maps and focus group discussions with young teenagers from four schools in an interface area located in North Belfast. The teenagers identified both private and public places of risk that they faced in their everyday lives. The types of risks produced by this environment are outlined and the teenagers’ strategies for managing the daily risks that they faced in their everyday lives are assessed. The data reveal how teenagers negotiate movement across different types of space and illustrate the extent to which their immediate geographical environment is dependent on its location within wider political, social and cultural systems.     

Military leadership: A context specific review

The purpose of this article is to review the literature on military leadership and highlight research opportunities for leadership scholars. The review uses a context specific approach and turns to a simplified version of Hunt's (Hunt, J. G. (1991). Leadership: A new synthesis. Newbury Park, CA: Sage) extended multilevel leadership model as a template to examine the many facets of military leadership. The military leadership literature is stratified into the systems, organizational, and direct levels of leadership with an examination of studies on the critical tasks and individual capabilities required at each level. Additionally, studies on organizational culture and effectiveness at each level are addressed. The article emphasizes that the military is undergoing substantial change as it adjusts to the changing nature of war and a fluid world situation. Based on trends in the military, the review concludes with several general recommendations for future research.