Status Variation on Family Farms: Effects of Crop,Machinery, and Off-farm Work1

Abstract Uncertainties facing farm enterprises place a premium on flexibility and adaptability in the work force. A study of 695 North Carolina farm couples is used to examine the extent to which 12 tasks on a farm are shared among family members and hired workers. Using husband alone as the norm, this pattern is contrasted with husband and son, husband and wife, husband and hired help, and husband and other statuses. Production, support, and household tasks are distinguished. Type of crop and amount of machinery used make a difference to status variation in production tasks, requiring more sharing on the part of the husband, but have less impact on support and household tasks. The latter are affected more by whether the husband or wife works off the farm. Despite status variation, farm work remains highly gendered; if the husband shares production work, it is with his son or a hired worker.     

Interpretive ethnography: From ‘authentic voice’ to ‘interpretive eye’

The paper explores the use of visual sociology in the study of material culture. It is argued that visual methods are particularly useful, sometimes essential, in gathering data about social and symbolic uses of goods and objects in day‐to‐day social life. Visual methods are not only integrative, but fundamental, in the construction of sociological datum from direct observation. Recognizing the importance of visual techniques forces us to reconsider their methodological status, from the point of view of reliability and standardization. This paper analyzes problems and advantages of photographic data, and proposes a “shooting protocol” to guarantee the reliability and standardization of research images. In addition, results of a study on the social and symbolic meaning of furniture are discussed.     

La dimension économique de la législation protectrice de l'emploi,y compris sous ses modalités différentes: analyse sur un panel de 117 pays, 1990–2013

Les auteurs replacent l'évolution de la législation protectrice de l'emploi (y compris de durée déterminée, intérimaire et à temps partiel) dans une perspective économique en utilisant un indice de la rigueur de la réglementation établi par le Centre for Business Research de l'Université de Cambridge pour 117 pays (1970–2013). L'analyse économétrique repose sur des méthodes pour données de panel non stationnaires. Elle fait apparaître un renforcement de la protection, associé à une hausse de la part salariale dans le revenu national, une progression des taux d'activité et d'emploi et une baisse du chômage, des relations qui restent faibles cependant au regard de la tendance économique globale.     

Ecological Information Needs for Environmental Justice

The concept that all peoples should have their voices heard on matters that affect their well‐being is at the core of environmental justice (EJ). The inability of some people of small towns, rural areas, minority, and low‐income communities, to become involved in environmental decisions is sometimes due to a lack of information. We provide a template for the ecological information that is essential to examine environmental risks to EJ populations within average communities, using case studies from South Carolina (Savannah River, a DOE site with minority impacts), Washington (Hanford, a DOE site with Native American impacts), and New Jersey (nonpoint, urbanized community pollution). While the basic ecological and public health information needs for risk evaluations and assessments are well described, less attention has been focused on standardizing information about EJ communities or EJ populations within larger communities. We suggest that information needed about EJ communities and populations includes demographics, consumptive and nonconsumptive uses of their regional environment (for example, maintenance and cosmetic, medicinal/religious/cultural uses), eco‐dependency webs, and eco‐cultural attributes. A purely demographics approach might not even identify EJ populations or neighborhoods, much less their spatial relation to the impact source or to each other. Using information from three case studies, we illustrate that some information is readily available (e.g., consumption rates for standard items such as fish), but there is less information about medicinal, cultural, religious, eco‐cultural dependency webs, and eco‐cultural attributes, all of which depend in some way on intact, functioning, and healthy ecosystems.     

Iud retention in West Pakistan and methodology of assessment

In 1967 there was a sample survey of women who had had IUD insertions in West Pakistan during the first 18 months of the Pakistan National Family Planning Program which began in July, 1965. The 12 month retention rate, including reinsertions, per 100 respondents was 56. Certain gross relationships between respondent characteristics and IUD retention were found. Respondents age 35+ and with 5+ living children and respondents who had insertions within two months postpartum had relatively high retention rates. Respondent characteristics associated with low retention rates included: age 35+ with 0–4 living children; reasons other than family planning reported as reasons for insertion; less than one-half hour travel time required to obtain insertion; not informed at time of insertion about side-effects of IUD; and insertion during last six months of 1966. Consistency of response was evaluated by reinterviewing a sample of respondents. The significance of the 43 percent non-response rate was evaluated by making further attempts to interview a sample of non-respondents.     

The SERVICE Framework: A Public‐service‐dominant Approach to Sustainable Public Services

In this paper we argue that the new public management has been a flawed paradigm for public services delivery that has produced very internally efficient but externally ineffective public service organizations. Subsequently we develop the SERVICE framework for sustainable public services and public service organizations. This framework is rooted within the public‐service‐dominant business logic and emphasizes the need for a focus on external value creation rather than internal efficiency alone.     

Achieving the Optimal Vaginal State: Using Vaginal Products and Study Gels in Uganda,Zimbabwe, and South Africa

Preferences and practices related to the vaginal condition have implications for the use of vaginal HIV prevention products. The authors used qualitative methods to explore narratives relating to the vaginal state amongst women in South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe who had previously participated in a biomedical HIV prevention trial. They investigated women's behaviors related to optimizing the vaginal state, experiences and perceptions of the gel's effect on the vaginal state and on penile-vaginal intercourse, women's narratives on male partner perceptions, and how preferences relating to the vaginal state may have interfered with gel use.