Exploring articulation in internal activism and public relations theory: A case study

This paper answers Dozier and Lauzen’s (2000) call for critical theoretical examinations of activism and public relations to provide new perspectives and avoid the paradox inherent in organizational-level analyses. It also fills a literature gap by examining a case of internal activism, Girl Scout members protesting the use of palm oil in Girl Scout cookies, thus blurring organizational boundaries and rejecting Us/Other dichotomies. The basic precepts of the cultural-economic model (Curtin & Gaither, 2005, 2007) are expanded to provide greater heuristic power to the model (Curtin, Gaither, & Ciszek) and to delineate a more nuanced understanding of the public relations/activism relationship.     

Caregivers as Interventionists and Trainers: Teaching Mands to Children with Developmental Disabilities

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - We evaluated the use of behavioral skills training (BST) to train caregivers to conduct procedures commonly associated with mand training. We trained two...     

PARTICIPATION AND THE NEW WELFARE

Current discussions of welfare reform are influenced by various kinds of talk about ‘participation’. Three are predominant in Australia: talk of self‐sufficiency, paying your dues, and team effort. All imply a local/associational/voluntary model of society which deflects attention from broader structural and economic factors. This prevailing treatment of ‘participation’ is heavily biased, ignoring alternative interpretations such as the older tradition that emphasises rights. The general discourse it underwrites is at best ineffective and quite likely dangerous.     

Communicative Experiences of Military Youth During a Parent’s Return Home from Deployment

The return home of a service member from tour of duty can be stressful for military families (Bowling & Sherman, 2008), but surprisingly little is known about how military youth communicatively experience a parent’s homecoming (MacDermid Wadsworth, 2010). This study draws on the emotional cycle of deployment model (Pincus, House, Christenson, & Adler, 2001) to examine the reunion period in military youth’s own words. Individual interviews were conducted with 31 military youth (age range = 10 to 13 years old). Participants identified four changes to family life (RQ1), including spending time together, experiencing emotional tranquility, returning to patterns in place before deployment, and having difficulty reintegrating the service member into everyday routines. Some military youth reported that the reunion matched their expectations (RQ2), but others noted that the reunion fell short of their expectations or that they did not expect the returning service member to be so tired or so irritable. Participants also described four issues of uncertainty (RQ3), including questions about the service member’s activities during deployment, reasons for joining and deploying, family life, and the possibility of future deployments. The article concludes by examining the theoretical and pragmatic implications of the findings.     

Coping and Psychological Distress Among Genderqueer Individuals: The Moderating Effect of Social Support

This study examined the relationships between social support, coping, depression, and anxiety in a sample of genderqueer individuals (n = 64). Genderqueer is a label used within the broader transgender community and is defined as a gender identity that is outside the binary construct of male and female. Findings indicate that 53% (n = 34) of participants reported clinical levels of depression and 39% (n = 25) reported clinical levels of anxiety. There was a direct relationship between social support and depression and anxiety, indicating that more social support is associated with less depression and anxiety when statistically excluding coping factors. In addition, more facilitative coping (e.g., seeking help) was related to less anxiety, whereas more avoidant coping (e.g., avoiding emotions) was related to more anxiety and depression. There was a significant interaction between social support and coping factors when predicting anxiety, such that individuals who reported higher social support used more facilitative coping which was associated with less anxiety and those who reported less social support used more avoidant coping which was associated with more anxiety. Clinical implications for working with genderqueer-identified clients are discussed.     

On the back of blackness: contemporary Canadian blackface and the consumptive production of post-racialist,white Canadian subjects

This article is based on a qualitative research project examining the phenomenon of contemporary Canadian blackface. It addresses the discursive juxtaposition of blackface with the claim to Canadian racial progressiveness that typically attends public debates about blackface. I argue that blackface and the discourses defending it are forms of racial consumption through which ostensibly progressive white subjectivities are secured. I further argue that contemporary Canadian blackface discourse is postracialist in its ability to juxtapose racist expression with claims of racial transcendence, and I identify this postracialism as a long-standing feature of Canadian national narratives that are partially constructed through revisionist understandings of the nation’s relationship to blackness, and against an ostensibly more virile racism in the US. This analysis reminds us of the symbiotic relationship between racial fetishization/fascination as found in contemporary blackface, the foundational white supremacy of the Canadian settler-colonial context, and the always uneven terms upon which blackness is included in Canada. It clarifies what is at stake for Canadians who participate in blackface and in defending it, and helps us to understand the pedagogical import of both blackface and Canadian egalitarianism for perpetuating anti-blackness in Canada.     

PRODUCT LINE AND INVENTORY STRATEGY

The problem of optimal variety in inventory heretofore has been approached on an individual item basis. This paper demonstrates the analysis of aggregate inventory through the use of the log-normal distribution. The theory and application of this distribution to inventory problems are reviewed. This distribution is then applied to the problem of optimal variety, measuring the impact on sales and cost of deletion of slow-moving items in order to determine the optimal assortment for profitability. This then leads to analysis of optimal margin determination for slow-moving items. The final part of the discussion deals with inventory characteristics of the distribution channel, utilizing the characteristics of the log-normal distribution.     

The Elaboration Likelihood Model and Communication About Food Risks

Factors such as hazard type and source credibility have been identified as important in the establishment of effective strategies for risk communication. The elaboration likelihood model was adapted to investigate the potential impact of hazard type, information source, and persuasive content of information on individual engagement in elaborative, or thoughtful, cognitions about risk messages. One hundred sixty respondents were allocated to one of eight experimental groups, and the effects of source credibility, persuasive content of information and hazard type were systematically varied. The impact of the different factors on beliefs about the information and elaborative processing examined. Low credibility was particularly important in reducing risk perceptions, although persuasive content and hazard type were also influential in determining whether elaborative processing occurred.