Responsibility and community: Sociology, social action, and policy making at the local level

How will sociology fare in the twenty-first century? We love what we do. The problem seems to be in communicating the value of what we do to lay people outside the discipline. Sociology’s future in part will be dependent upon its practitioners demonstrating its utility in the marketplace of everyday life, assessment and decision making. This paper offers a twenty-year perspective of one sociology department’s work in a rural Appalachian region. While providing a brief overview of a series of initiatives, it explains in depth our involvement and contributions to a community-based health project.     

Michael Polanyi and the sociology of a free society

Michael Polanyi’s defense of freedom in science and society conflicts in major ways with Weber (process of rationalization, value neutrality of sociologists), Popper (objective knowledge, open society), and technological or oppositional sociology. Polanyi rejects positivism, utilitarianism, and Marxism, and defends freedom as a necessary condition for pursuit of spiritual ideals such as truth, justice, charity, and tolerance. Half truths about science seen as rejecting tradition, faith, authority, values, and the subjective, have helped bring valuable social results, but in the form taken by radical philosophical skepticism (doubt), also called objectivism, they also threaten freedom itself. A more truthful account is needed. Scientists and citizens who would maintain a free society are morally responsible persons, joined together in quest of truth and certain other ideals, demanding of themselves and each other that they be faithful to that quest. Polanyi’s thought has connections with that of Shils, and has implications for what Shils calls a consensual sociology. Louis H. Swartz teaches law, and is interested in the development of sociological theory and legal sociology, building upon the contributions of Polanyi and Shils.     

The Dutch IOR Approach to Organizational Design: An Alternative to Business Process Re-engineering?

This paper presents the current Dutchsociotechnical design approach to integralorganizational renewal in a contextual way. Both itsdesign theory and intervention processes are reviewedand some aggregated empirical evidence is presented. Next, thepaper compares the ideas developed in the Dutch approachto those presented in its American, Scandinavian, andAustralian counterparts. It is concluded that, at a meta-level, they all share the ideal ofparticipative democracy, while at the conceptual level,these distinctive approaches appear quite incompatible.Notwithstanding substantial diversity, it is presumed these approaches can be seen as localmanifestations of a single sociotechnicalparadigm.     

Are We Playing the Same Game?: Publishing Task Environments and Research Productivity Among Management Specialists

Archival data on over 15,000 contributors to 33management journals are used to examine productivitydifferences among scholars in different areas ofmanagement. The results suggest that a fragmentedpublication network offers specialists from different areasdissimilar publication opportunities and experiences,and may contribute to varying levels of publicationproductivity among authors. The implications of our results for future research and facultyevaluation processes are explored.     

Stigma Management Among Gay/Bisexual Men with HIV/AIDS

People with HIV infection are subjected to prejudice, discrimination and hostility related to the stigmatization of AIDS. To manage the stigma of their disease, they mount complex coping strategies. This paper reports results from a qualitative study that examined gay/bisexual men's experiences of living with HIV infection. Unstructured interviews from a diverse sample of 139 men were analyzed to examine how men coped with AIDS-related stigma. We discerned a variety of stigma management strategies that could be arranged along a continuum from reactive to proactive based on the extent to which they implicitly accepted or challenged the social norms and values that underlie the stigmatization of HIV/AIDS. Reactive strategies to cope with stigma involve defensive attempts to avoid or mitigate the impact of stigma, but imply acceptance of the underlying social norms and values that construct the stigma. Examples of reactive strategies include hiding one's HIV status, presenting one's illness as a less stigmatizing one (e.g., cancer), or distancing one's self from more damaging aspects of AIDS-stigma (e.g., attributing infection to blood transfusion). Proactive strategies challenge the validity of the stigma and imply disavowal and resistance of the social norms and values that underlie the stigma. Examples of proactive strategies include engaging in public educational efforts that address misperceptions about HIV transmission and social activism to change the social and political conditions that affect PWA/HIV.     

The family educator: a professional resource for families.

The family educator works with the client's family members to help in their understanding of their ill relative and to assist with managing the stress of the caregiver role. Families come to understand that they can join forces with the clinical team in helping their relative engage in a trial of treatment. Each treatment recommendation is explained to the family and decisions are arrived at by consensus through partnership meetings. Role modeling effective interaction approaches and providing assistance in generating alternative solutions to problematic situations are important functions of the family educator.     

Dimensions of Family Conflict and Their Influence on Child and Adolescent Adjustment

Using the first (1987-1988) and second (1992-1994) waves of the National Survey of Families and Households, this study examines the concurrent and longitudinal influences of interparental conflict and parent-child conflict on child and adolescent adjustment. Analyses focus on 542 intact families, each with a randomly selected focal child aged 5 to 11 at time 1 and aged 10 to 17 at time 2. Results indicate that both parent-child and parent-adolescent conflict are critical predictors of children's and adolescents'socioemotional adjustment. Interparental conflict, by contrast, is less important for adjustment in middle and late childhood as well as in adolescence. The findings extend previous research by suggesting that the salience and threat of interparental conflict subside as children make the transition into adolescence.     

Telling a Good Story: Using Narratives in Vocational Rehabilitation With Veterans

Because of the high chronicity of work-related problems in a Veterans Administration Medical Center population, many of the traditional methods of career assessment, counseling, and placement have proven ineffectual. In this article the authors detail the development of an intervention based on narrative or storytelling principles. They describe efforts to introduce this model to patients as well as to relate patients' stories to vocational outcomes. The usefulness of stories as an organizing principle for counselors and clients is discussed, and suggestions are offered for further uses of storytelling interventions.