Civil Society Meta-organizations and Legitimating Processes: the Case of the Addiction Field in France

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - To cope with the new challenges inherent to their political role, civil society organizations must convince their...     

Racial/Ethnic Minority Community College Students' Critical Consciousness and Social Cognitive Career Outcomes

A need exists to better understand how racial/ethnic minority students' critical consciousness development in response to marginalization may be involved in their educational and career development. We therefore examined the link between critical consciousness development and career decision self-efficacy and career outcome expectations among racial/ethnic minority community college students. Following social cognitive career theory's conceptual pillars, we developed a testable model integrating critical consciousness and social cognitive variables. This model was tested with 135 racially and ethnically diverse community college students. Data analysis included path analyses and tests of model fit using structural equation modeling. Results suggested that (a) higher critical agency is linked to higher career decision self-efficacy and outcome expectations and (b) critical action and reflection have a bidirectional link and predict higher critical agency. Implications for research and practice aiming to close educational and career gaps among racial/ethnic minorities are discussed.     

Diversity and structure of urban forests of Sahel cities in Niger

Urban Ecosystems - Urbanization in the Sahel is constantly competing with and greatly affecting the woody flora in urban areas. Urbanization can replace the species mix, leading to changes in plant...     

Corruption and the ‘Paradox of Redistribution’

The existing literature on the determinants of income redistribution has identified a ‘paradox’. Namely, that countries with a high degree of market income inequality redistribute little, which is in disagreement with the median voter theorem. In a first step, this paper outlines several mechanisms that explain why government corruption might be partially responsible for this ‘paradox’. In a second step, different corruption perception indices and an instrumental variable approach are used to provide empirical evidence that indicates a significant negative impact of corruption on redistribution levels for a sample of 148 developing and developed countries. This finding suggests that, next to political and need factors, government corruption explains to some extent the ‘paradox of redistribution’. This is especially true for many developing countries, given that they typically have relatively high degrees of corruption and low levels of redistribution.     

Individual Uncertainty About Longevity

This article presents an assessment of individual uncertainty about longevity. A survey performed on 3,331 French people enables us to record several survival probabilities per individual. On this basis, we compute subjective life expectancies (SLE) and subjective uncertainty regarding longevity (SUL), the standard deviation of each individual’s subjective distribution of her or his own longevity. It is large and equal to more than 10 years for men and women. Its magnitude is comparable to the variability of longevity observed in life tables for individuals under 60, but it is smaller for those older than 60, which suggests use of private information by older respondents. Our econometric analysis confirms that individuals use private information—mainly their parents’ survival and longevity—to adjust their level of uncertainty. Finally, we find that SUL has a sizable impact, in addition to SLE, on risky behaviors: more uncertainty on longevity significantly decreases the probability of unhealthy lifestyles. Given that individual uncertainty about longevity affects prevention behavior, retirement decisions, and demand for long-term care insurance, these results have important implications for public policy concerning health care and retirement.     

Impact of support networks for breastfeeding: A multicentre study

Background

The rates of breastfeeding worldwide are slowly improving since 1996. Europe is still trailing behind the global breastfeeding incidence and prevalence rates. Thus, breastfeeding promotion, protection, prolongation and support have become an important challenge as breastfeeding sharply decreases in the first six months of life.

Reclaiming the future: (In)visible dirt borders in Sammy Baloji’s mining photomontages

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses how Baloji’s photographic work Essay on Urban Planning and Mémoire/Kolwezi rely on the dialectic of visibility/invisibility of mining dirt to reveal similarities as well as discrepancies between past and present in capital and labour flows. Conflating archives of humans on display and photographs of abandoned mining sites, Baloji’s figurations of mining dirt unravel how perceptions of dirt were used by the colonial system to impose geographies of exclusion that have become invisible. While they expose how postindependence Congo has failed to appropriate its resources, Baloji’s images of artisanal miners working with mining dirt further epitomise how the disposable objects (often dematerialised via the web) consumed in rich nations involve the disposable lives of workers in the Congo within material dirt borders one can no longer see.     

The Residential Mobility of Seniors Among Different Residential Forms: Analysis of Metropolitan and Rural Issues for Six Contrasted Regions in Québec,Canada

The purpose of this research is to describe and analyze the residential mobility of senior citizens, between 2006 and 2011, among different residential forms in rural and metropolitan areas in the province of Quebec (Canada). A systematic analysis of residential form variability in territories that include both metropolitan and rural areas is performed. First, a typology of residential forms is proposed using a principal component analysis and a hierarchical cluster analysis on environment-related and housing variables. Second, the residential mobility of seniors among these different residential forms is analyzed. The results reveal a certain amount of residential stability among seniors, except where specific conditions are met, such as the death of a spouse or the onset of health problems limiting day-to-day activities. For those who moved, high-rise habitat areas and mixed areas with older rental apartments held the greatest attraction. However, suburban areas attracted the largest number of seniors because these areas account for a sizeable portion of the real estate market.     

‘What Was I Thinking?!’ Rhetorical Questions as a Technique to Identify and Explore Impasses in Therapy

Rhetorical questions emerging spontaneously in consultations can be used as a tool for developing self‐reflexivity and exploring the therapeutic alliance in the process of therapy with couples and families. This paper presents a technique based on the enunciation of rhetorical questions, which can point to an impasse in the process of therapy and contain a key to its resolution. The technique focuses on the distinctive feature of rhetorical questions as convening a paradoxical injunction: a question not intended as a question, while uttered as such. The technique in four steps is illustrated by examples from therapy, supervision, consultation, and self‐supervision. Its focus is the interlink between the therapeutic relationship and the process of therapy and it is informed by a second‐order cybernetics approach, dialogical practice, and the systemic literature on emotion. The technique can help develop curiosity in working with families, lead to unforeseen developments, and touch on prejudices not made explicit in previous therapeutic encounters. Whether we are acting as supervisors, therapists, or clients, the creation of a ‘secure enough’ context for rhetorical questions becomes critical to allow freeform exploration.     

From Foster Care to Adoption and Guardianship: A Twenty-First Century Challenge

For nearly four decades, child welfare policy and practice have focused on the achievement of legal permanence for children in foster care. Although federal child welfare policy has resulted in the movement of children from state custody to legally permanent adoptive or guardianship families, little is known about the quality and enduring nature of these placements. A significant challenge of the twenty-first century child welfare system is how to ensure the well-being of children currently living with adoptive parents or guardians. This paper discusses child welfare policy and trends related to post-permanency well-being, including the decrease in Title IV-E foster care caseloads nationwide and the simultaneous increase in Title IV-E adoptive and guardianship caseloads. We highlight the needs of a twenty-first century child welfare system, including increased federal efforts to ensure child permanence and well-being after legal adoption or guardianship has been achieved, as well as more rigorous longitudinal and interdisciplinary research focused on the post-permanency adjustment of children and their families.