Abstractions on steroids: A critical realist approach to computer simulations

Computer simulations are increasingly used within various fields of the social sciences, including analytical sociology and computational social science. However, the method has yet to fully find its place within critical realism, generally regarded as reductionist and methodological individualist and thus inadequate to the task of grasping the full and enigmatic complexity of social life. This article contributes to the discussion by suggesting an alternative approach to computer simulations in the social realm. Instead of representing reality, simulations are seen as a way of boosting abstraction by enabling us to isolate and study the effects of emergent mechanisms. The need for such tools is growing more urgent in an age characterized by rapid change and global networks of causal interrelation. Hence there is a need not only for new tools to deal with causal complexity within critical realism, but also for a critical realist perspective to fill the meta‐theoretical vacuum on which the simulation approach is largely based. The approach developed here provides a challenge to the predominant ways in which simulations are utilized today, with increasingly sophisticated models aiming towards realistic representation on the basis of empirical data.     

Web-Based Supervisor Training: Real Relationships in Cyberspace

Little attention has been devoted in the past to the in-depth training of clinical supervisors, although they play a pivotal role in the professional development of social workers. To address this learning gap, the Smith College School for Social Work inaugurated the Advanced Clinical Supervision Certificate Program in 2005, as part of its continuing education series. This article addresses a unique feature of the training program: a 9-month “winter practicum” of online case presentations and group discussions that follows the participants' week together on the Smith campus. The author, the practicum facilitator, describes the adjustment of the group to interactions that are not face-to-face. Themes and dynamics emerge as in any other supervisory group. The author concludes that real relationships can be fostered and maintained in cyberspace, particularly when a connection among group members has already been established through prior in-person contact.     

An Exploratory Study on Psychosocial Variables of Single Parent Involvement in Education

Despite the proliferation of studies on parent involvement, few have specifically examined the psychosocial variables of single parent involvement. In this qualitative study, ten single mothers with children in the first two years of primary school were interviewed to explore psychosocial variables of their involvement in education. Financial assistance, personal resilience and support from loved ones especially grandparents supported their involvement. The lack of time to provide supervision due to long hours spent at work, low wages, difficulties with quality supervision of children's homework and grandparents' differences in disciplinary practices prevented their involvement. Implications for school-community-family partnerships were discussed.     

基于职业工作过程的高职计算机基础课程教学改革实践

当前基于工作过程的课程体系建设已经成为我国高职教育课程发展的重要方向。文章针对计算机基础课程教学中面临的主要问题,结合实际的教学实践,对基于职业工作过程的高职计算机基础课程教学改革进行了探讨。     

The Presentation of Avatars in Second Life: Self and Interaction in Social Virtual Spaces

What do interactions in virtual spaces suggest about everyday life in the digital age? How do interactions in virtual spaces shape everyday life in the digital age? Guided by hypermodern theory, I conduct participant observation in the social virtual world Second Life to provide tentative answers to those questions. I suggest that Second Life is both a social psychological playground where participants enjoy individualistic fantasies and a virtual community where they collaborate on collective projects. When people define the virtual as real, it is real in its consequences. Accordingly, social virtual spaces such as Second Life offer sociologists unique opportunities for research, education, intervention, and hence the development of a virtual imagination.     

The politics of the Digital Single Market: culture vs. competition vs. copyright

This paper examines the implications for European music culture of the European Union’s (EU) Digital Single Market strategy. It focuses on the regulatory framework being created for the management of copyright policy, and in particular the role played by collective management organisations (CMOs or collecting societies). One of the many new opportunities created by digitalisation has been the music streaming services. These depend on consumers being able to access music wherever they are, but such a system runs counter to the management of rights on a national basis and through collecting organisations which act as monopolies within their own territories. The result has been ‘geo-blocking’. The EU has attempted to resolve this problem in a variety of ways, most recently in a Directive designed to reform the CMOs. In this paper, we document these various efforts, showing them to be motivated by a deep-seated and persisting belief in the capacity of ‘competition’ to resolve problems that, we argue, actually lie elsewhere – in copyright policy itself. The result is that the EU’s intervention fails to address its core concern and threatens the diversity of European music culture by rewarding those who are already commercially successful.     

Single Parent Families:

The purpose of this single parent families bookshelf is to provide potential users with a sampling of recent books that deal with various aspects of single parenting. Books are focused on the time period of 1980 to 1993. Resources include primarily North American and Canadian entries. The titles are presented in the fol- lowing categories: children and one-parent families, cross-cultural references, divorced single parents, ethnicity and single parent fami- lies, frameworks for examining single parent families, never-married biological teen mother headed families, practical guides to single parent family living, single fathers with custody following separa- tion and divorce, and special issues of journals focused on single parent families.     

Quality of Life and Well-Being of Single Parent Families:

This discussion brings together the multiple factors that impact single parent families and effect their overall quality of life and well-being. Influential variables were identified and organized at three levels-institutional, interpersonal, and individual. A model was devel- oped that included the most salient determinants of single parent family well-being. These included cultural norms and values, health of family members, social and demographic factors, individual per- sonal characteristics, social support networks, and social institutions such as the law, the economy, the polity (represented in the formation of public policy) and education. Variables associated with the noncus- todial (nonresidential) parent also were identified as affecting the quality of life of single parent family members. In combination these factors help establish, maintain, and change the environment within which single parents raise their families.     

School and Family Connections:

No abstract available for this article.     

CHAPTER 12: Services to Families During Three Stages of a Handicapped Person's Life

No abstract available for this article.