The 21st Century Body: Introduction

Introducing the topic of body modification, I examine how the body, as cultural symbol of the 21st century, has become the site for exploring subjectivity and creating identity. I ground the 3 articles and 2 discussions that follow in terms of the issues that have revolved around this new, exciting, yet quite challenging subject. Feminists debate whether body modification is a reclaiming of the body or another form of victimization and internalization of the cultural denigration of bodies, especially women's bodies. Clinicians struggle with differentiating self-mutilation from self-empowerment and productive ways of restoring self-structures. Rather than lean in any direction, this introduction aims to open up and broaden the lenses from which we frame and understand the debates. My hope is that this will allow us to rethink the clinical struggles we face as our patients choose to pierce, cut, and reshape their bodies.     

The science of attracting foster carers

Across the world the number of children needing a foster home is increasing; however, the number of individuals willing to foster a child is decreasing. It is therefore critical to gain insight into the barriers preventing people from fostering a child. Using data from a 2009 survey of 756 Australians, combinations of barriers are investigated by conducting a posteriori segmentation analysis within the market of potential foster carers. Four segments are identified and profiled to determined significant differences in terms of psychological and socio‐demographic characteristics. Findings, including the fact that almost one‐third of respondents indicated that they had not considered foster caring before because no one had ever asked them to, have practical implications. Improved marketing strategies tailored to the characteristics of each segment are required to harvest the full potential of individuals willing to foster a child and thus contribute to solving one of the most difficult social challenges facing developed nations.     

Children's values: Universality,conflict, and sources of influence

An important question for psychological science is what types of psychological values guide individuals throughout life, and what factors increase or decrease the importance of these values. This Quartet in Social Development focuses on research that explicitly investigates values as defined by the universal content and structure of values. A central goal of the articles in this special quartet was to investigate basic human values in children, and to chart age‐related changes as well as test developmental hypotheses. In this commentary, I reflect on what we have learned in light of other research on children's values, and specifically how future research on values could benefit by a more explicit focus on three central themes in social development: universality, conflict, and sources of influence.     

Korean Children's Evaluation of Parental Restrictions Regarding Gender‐stereotypic Peer Activities

Korean children's evaluations of parental restrictions of children's activities based on gender stereotypic expectations were investigated. Third and sixth grade Korean (N = 128) children evaluated scenarios in which a boy or girl desired to play ballet or soccer. Participants used stereotypes to support children's desires to play gender‐consistent activities and adhered to parental authority for choice of gender‐consistent social activities. Yet, they also rejected parental decisions to treat sons and daughters differently based on the view that it would be unfair. Stereotypic expectations decreased with age and were used more by boys than by girls when evaluating exclusion. The results are discussed in terms of exclusion, development, and culture.     

Kommunikation und Kooperation in Virtuellen Teams

This paper reflects on characteristics of virtual teams as well as potentials and challenges of this coopewration form. A crucial aspect of computer-mediated cooperation is the interplay of technical, social, as well as organizational factors. Therefore, Janneck’s (Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Web Information Systems (S. 521–526), Lisboa, INSTICC Press, 2009) Multidimensional Model of Computer-Mediated Communication, which makes a clear distinction between social and technical factors influencing computer-mediated communication, is presented in more detail.     

Of Art and Drudgery: Homekeeping,Martha Stewart,and Techné

Stewart’s voice is an exceptionally influential viewpoint in how we imagine and construct the twenty-first century North American home. In an era where more women than men attend college and where women make up a (slim) majority of the workforce, Stewart’s popularity is baffling to many. Locating Stewart within North American traditions of domestic advice, the author investigates how Stewart frames domestic arts as techné, arguing that Stewart’s profitability and popularity are so robust and wide-reaching because she rescues domestic arts from denigration, refiguring homekeeping as a techné of worth and importance. This article provides a framework for understanding the meaningful ways domesticity and design function as an ethics of daily life, problematizing the gendered dichotomy between production and consumption.