Food Security: The Elaboration of Contested Claims to a Consensus Frame*

Abstract This article demonstrates Gamson's claim that behind the apparent agreement implied by “consensus frames” lies considerable dissensus. Ironically, the very potency of consensus frames may generate contested claims to the ownership of a social problem. Food security is a potent consensus frame that has generated at least three distinct collective action frames: food security as hunger; food security as a component of a community's developmental whole; and food security as minimizing risks with respect to an industrialized food system's vulnerability to both “normal accidents” as well as the “intentional accidents” associated with agriterrorism. We show that each collective action frame reflects internal normative variation identified here with Goffman's “keying” concept. These keys suggest power differentials in the endorsement or critique of dominant institutional practices. Each frame and associated keys reflect distinct sets of interests by collective actors, such as demands for substantively different applications of science and technology. The prognostic framing of the community food security movement coincidentally holds potential for reducing not only the accidental risks of productivist agriculture but also the uncertainty induced by the risk of terrorist exploitation of those vulnerabilities. The article explores power differentials and variable levels of oppositional consciousness as mechanisms by which keys generate contentious politics within frames while serving as potential bridges between frames. This contested ownership of food security has implications for the associated movements' and organizations' capacity to influence the structure of the agrifood system as well as the broader socioeconomic organization of rural regions.     

Missed opportunity: The NTER and sustainable development outcomes for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory

This article questions why the Labor Government has failed to fundamentally change the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) which it inherited from the Howard government, in the face of evidence which suggests that it is a development intervention unlikely to bring about sustained change. There are two major problems which this article highlights: the coercive and denigrating approach of the NTER, and its failure to address the need for Indigenous governance to drive lasting Indigenous development. Drawing on global research about the reduction of poverty and evidence about the social and economic development of native nations in other settler states, the article suggests that the NTER has been a missed opportunity for Indigenous development. Better policies would have been to address the barriers which Indigenous people identify as blocking their initiatives for development, and to support the essential work of building effective and legitimate community governance to drive development.     

Prejudicial Attitudes Toward Older Adults May Be Exaggerated When People Feel Vulnerable to Infectious Disease: Evidence and Implications

Prejudice against elderly people ("ageism") is an issue of increasing social concern, but the psychological roots of ageism are only partially understood. Recent theorizing suggests that ageism may result, in part, from fallible cue-based disease-avoidance mechanisms. The perception of subjectively atypical physical features (including features associated with aging) may implicitly activate aversive semantic concepts (implicit ageism), and this implicit ageism is likely to emerge among perceivers who are especially worried about the transmission of infectious diseases. We report an experiment (N = 88) that provides the first empirical test of this hypothesis. Results revealed that implicit ageism is predicted by the interactive effects of chronic perceptions of vulnerability to infectious disease and by the temporary salience of disease-causing pathogens. Moreover, these effects are moderated by perceivers' cultural background. Implications for public policy are discussed .     

An experiment in helping social work practitioners to design and conduct research

A twelve-week short course, “Understanding Social Work Practice through Research” was conducted for experienced social work practitioners during the Spring of 1982. The course, experimental in character, began with the practice interests of individual course members and used the resources of the class members and the course tutors to help each person to devise a research design suitable to his or her personally declared practice interests. The work was supported by handouts (e.g., “Turning an interest in a practice issue into one or more researchable questions”; “Decisions required when constructing a research design”; etc.) and by worksheets.

Eight persons attended all or most sessions (one dropped out early in the sequence) and all of these completed a research design and indicated an interest in implementing it. Optional follow-up sessions were provided in the form of group support meetings held at four-month intervals and individual consultation as required. In addition to producing a viable research design, members gained increased confidence in themselves as researchers as well as practitioners, clarified their understanding of the relationship between research and practice, and in some cases emerged with a renewed enthusiasm for social work practice.     

II. The Conclusions and Recommendations of the Commission on the Social Studies of the American Historical Association

Abstract

Some Recent Geography Textbooks: Modern Business Geography. By Ellsworth Huntington and Sumner W. Cushing. World Book Company, Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York, 1925. viii, 352 pp. $2.00. Reviewed by: John E. Orchard

Some Recent Geography Textbooks: A Smaller Commercial Geography. By G. G. Chisholm and J. H. Birrell. Longmans, Green and Company, New York, 1924. xiv, 302 pp. $1.65. Reviewed by: John E. Orchard

Some Recent Geography Textbooks: High Lights of Geography: North America. By David Starr Jordan and Katherine Dunlop Cather. World Book Company, Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York, 1925. xv, 358 pp. $1.44. Reviewed by: John E. Orchard

Some Recent Geography Textbooks: Human Geography by Grades: Book Three. The World. By James Fairgrieve and Ernest Young. D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1925. x, 304 pp. Reviewed by: John E. Orchard

Some Recent Geography Textbooks: First Lessons in Geography. By Philip A. Knowlton. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1924. vi, 257 pp. Reviewed by: John E. Orchard

Some Recent Geography Textbooks: The Story Key to Geographic Names. By O. D. von Engeln and Jane McKelway Urquhart. D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1924. xvi, 279 pp. Reviewed by: John E. Orchard

The War for Southern Independence, being vol. VI of The History of the United States. By Edward Channing. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1925. 645 pp. $4.75. Reviewed by: B. B. Kendrick

Ethics and Citizenship. By John W. Wayland, Head of the Department of History and Social Science, State Teachers College, Harrisonburg, Va. The McClure Co., Staunton, Va., 1924. 251 pp. $1.85. Reviewed by: H. W. Schneider

History of the 151st Field Artillery. (Minnesota in the World War, Volume I.) By Louis L. Collins. Edited by Wayne E. Stevens. Minnesota War Records Commission, St. Paul, 1924. xxv, 427 pp. Reviewed by: Elbridge Colby

History of the Philippines. By David P. Barrows. The World Book Company, Yonkers, New York, 1924. xiv, 406 pp. $1.60. Reviewed by: Paul V. Shaw     

What Money Cannot Buy: The Distinctive and Multidimensional Impact of Volunteers

Although it is assumed that volunteers make an extremely important contribution to organizations and the community, studies that examine their direct impact are scarce. Using quantitative and qualitative data collected from clients, volunteers and staff at the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House, examined is the impact of volunteers on the organization, the clients and on themselves. Volunteers had a high direct and indirect impact on recipients, including on their attitudes toward volunteering and their future behavior. Volunteers gained intrinsic and extrinsic benefits and, as expected, their participation had a positive impact on the organization. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on social impact and volunteering.     

Idle No More,Facebook and Diffusion

The indigenous-led movement Idle No More leapt into public view during the winter of 2012–2013, bringing round-dance flash-mobs and blockades to communities across Canada and internationally, becoming a symbol of twenty-first century indigenous resistance. This profile examines the first two months of the movement by analysing the structure of social networks being mobilized, by breaking down the Facebook architecture and interface into its various elements, and by examining how these influence diffusion and its constituent sub-processes. It argues that the combination of dense clusters and weak ties in indigenous social networks leveraged the way Facebook facilitated the movement.