Moments in the Methodology of Meso History

Meso history is that branch of the history of sociology that focuses on social relations, that is, patterns of connection among groups, group members, and group meanings, as explanatory factors in the shaping of sociology. The methodology of meso history consists of strategies for discovering, documenting and patterning connections. This paper explores those strategies in terms of three moments generic to the research process in social science– moments of movement from intellectual curiosity to conceptualization, from research question to data collection and from data to presentation of findings–focusing on the distinctive permutations on this research process that occur in the practice of meso history.     

The Magic of Oaxaca: An Emotional Geography of Age,Gender and Nation

This study analyzes interviews with expat women in Oaxaca, Mexico. The women use the “magic” of Oaxaca to elude traditional expectations of aging and gender. Oaxaca is crucial for the process of defining themselves as vital and independent in what Massey (1994) calls a progressive sense of place. A translocal emotional geography is constructed. However, the issues of place and nation are more problematic. Efforts to sufficiently enter their various communities in Oaxaca determine the success the women have at overcoming neo‐colonial interactions and assumptions.     

A Passion for Gambling: A Generation-Specific Conceptual Analysis and Review of Gambling Among Older Adults in Canada

The proliferation of gambling opportunities in Canada, coupled with an aging population, has led to an increased prevalence of gambling among older adults. Encouraged by this trend, gambling industries have modified their activities to attract and market to this group. Yet, older adults are not a homogeneous group. The life experiences, values, and attitudes shared by generations make a cohort-specific analysis of gambling among older adults a worthwhile pursuit. Drawing from the Dualistic Model of Passion (Vallerand et al. in J Pers Soc Psychol 85(4):756–767, 2003), we discuss the role of passion in shaping gambling behaviours, and the implications of a harmonious or obsessive passion on the benefits and risks to two distinct generations of older adults. Based on their generational attributes, we posit that members of the Silent Generation (those born between 1925 and 1942) stand to gain more from the benefits of recreational gambling, but also stand lose more from problem gambling, than their children’s generation, the Baby Boomers (those born between 1942 and 1964). Preventative strategies to assist problem gambling seniors, along with recommendations for further research, are discussed.     

Aging and Gender Health Gap: A Multilevel Analysis for 17 European Countries

Social Indicators Research - The European population is aging and their declining capacity makes older Europeans more dependent on the availability of care. Male and female health needs at older...     

(Not) Taking Account of Precarious Employment: Workfare Policies and Lone Mothers in Ontario and the UK

Workfare is, at least in part, a policy response to changing labour markets and the expansion taking place in jobs that are low‐paid, irregular and insecure. For lone mothers, increasingly the focus of workfare policies, precarious employment creates special challenges. However, the nature of the jobs that are available to women on social assistance has received relatively little attention in the workfare literature, which focuses more on individual characteristics, supports to employment, and programme impacts. Drawing upon both primary and secondary sources and using Ontario, the province with the most developed workfare programme in Canada, this article examines the ways in which policies support and enforce precarious employment. The article also considers the implications of precarious employment for UK policy, which has not (yet) adopted workfare for lone mothers, although incremental steps in that direction are taking place as employment is increasingly viewed as the appropriate objective of income support programmes for lone mothers.     

Five tumultuous years in Australian child protection: little progress

In an article published in 2002, one of the authors of this paper offered an analysis of the Australian child protection data from 1999 to 2000 and raised questions about the effectiveness of mandatory reporting. Recently, child protection data for 2003–2004 has been released. This provides an opportunity to re‐examine some child protection issues and the effectiveness of mandatory reporting 5 years on. These have been tumultuous years. Each state and territory has held major inquiries into this area of practice and, as a result, significant organizational changes have taken place and new resources are being made available. Nevertheless, questions about the effectiveness of child protection services remain. There is continuing doubt about the value of comprehensive reporting systems.