The feasibility of alternative IMF-type stabilization programs in Mexico, 1983–1987

In November 1982, Mexico announced an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a program to ease the country's large foreign debt. Mexico may recieve nearly $4 billion worth of credit if the government reduces the deficit, raises taxes and curbs imports. This article investigates whether an IMF program like this can work in Mexico without a serious and immediate economic contraction. A model is constructed to examine the impact of government fiscal activity under alternative stabilization programs. The analysis suggests a critical element for success is the ability and willingness to raise tax revenues.     

The Portable Community: Mobility and Modernization in Bluegrass Festival Life

Drawing from six years of ethnographic field research, I examine participants' involvement in bluegrass music and festival culture in the American West. Participants left their community‐starved home neighborhoods to cultivate what I refer to as “portable communities”: temporary forms of mobile gemeinschaft community that participants found in multiple settings. Festivalgoers articulated a consistent vocabulary of intimacy, inclusion, and simplicity when describing their continued involvement in this setting. They described their involvement as driven by a quest for intimate community, open and equal social relations, and simple living, elements they found in short supply in their daily lives. Whereas traditional community forms depend on residential stability, these participants intentionally cultivated and supported alternatives that emerged in response to participants' geographic mobility.     

More responsibility, less control: psychiatric survivors and Welfare State restructuring

This paper is concerned with the implications of recent Welfare State restructuring for psychiatric survivors' citizenship status. Using the Province of Ontario as a case study, the paper examines the extent to which recent change in mental health care and social assistance programs has worked to facilitate or constrain survivors' ability to exercise control over their lives. Despite recognition of the importance of survivors' participation in the mental health care system in the late 1980s, recent years have seen a return to a more traditional treatment paradigm characterized by professional control. Concurrently, restructuring of social assistance programs has led to a decline in the real value of income supports and growing pressure on informal support networks. As a result, psychiatric survivors are increasingly held responsible for their own material well-being and public conduct, but are less able to exercise control within everyday life.     

The cultural and social incorporation of sociological knowledge

Any evaluation of sociology as a discipline ought to focus not only on the way sociology is produced, but also on how it is consumed. In this article, we examine the degree to which sociological concepts have been incorporated into the vernacular of American society, the impact of sociological techniques and methods on politics and society, and the relationship between sociology and public policy. While sociologists often point to the problems caused by a certain alienation from the general culture—for example the notion that sociology is written in an obtuse language that the public cannot comprehend—we point to the problems that develop when sociology is too readily incorporated into American culture and society. The danger is that the more popular sociology is, the less likely it will be to maintain the sharp intellectual edge that made its incorporation possible in the first place.     

A Multiple Perspective Approach to Using Micro Theory

This paper examines attempts to synthesize three micro-level sociological theories, namely symbolic interaction, exchange theory, and the construction of social reality. The author argues that although these perspectives are not based on totally incompatable assumptions, previous attempts to synthesize have not been useful in directing the course of research. An alternative to theoretical synthesis, using multiple perspectives, is suggested, and examples of multiple paradigm use are presented.