Organization as containment of acquisitive mimetic rivalry: the contribution of renŕe girard

This paper considers relations between violence and organization as seen through the lens moulded by Rene Girard. This is because more than any other writer of his generation Girard postulates the primacy of violence in his sociological theorising. In this paper we first outline Girard's theory. Next we discuss this in relation to Freudian theories of organization. We then draw out some of the implications of his theory for the understanding of topics within Organization Theory, such as bureaucracy and sexual harassment. Finally we suggest a research agenda.     

The Diffusion of Home Computers Among Households in Silicon Valley

No abstract available for this article.     

The Life Course: A Sociological Introduction

Abstract

Recognition of the deleterious effects of domestic violence on women's mental health has highlighted the potential benefits for women of collaboration between mental health and domestic violence services. Yet the different histories, knowledge bases, and organisational cultures of the mental health and domestic violence sectors present formidable challenges to the development of effective collaborative work. This article draws on a large research enquiry, involving four separate but related studies, which explored aspects of collaboration between these two service sectors. It focuses particularly on data collected in interviews with practitioners from mental health and domestic violence services who were participants in an action research study (one of the four studies), which was aimed at discovering the factors that contributed to enhanced collaboration and the benefits of this for women who experience both domestic violence and mental health issues.     

Aboriginal Women's Perceptions and Experiences of a Family Violence Transitional Accommodation Service

Abstract

This article presents a qualitative study of Aboriginal women's perceptions and experiences of a transitional housing program in South Australia that was established to assist long-term homelessness and family violence. The aim of the study was to explore the experiences and service outcomes for Aboriginal women and their children and to identify both facilitators and barriers to the effective operation of the program. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 13 Aboriginal women and thematic analysis was used to report their collective stories. The women's stories showed individualised, flexible, and open-ended support as well as practical outcomes of stable, safe housing for themselves and their children were particularly valued. The women reported that these features of the program augmented feelings of strengthened confidence and self-efficacy. The authors argue the domestic and family violence sector has the opportunity to learn from the perceptions and experiences of Aboriginal women, particularly allowing time and commitment to working long-term with families.     

ORIENTALISM RECONSIDERED: ISRAELI MEDIA AND THE ARTICULATION OF RESISTANCE

Questions of the relation between race and nationality are at the centre of Israel' defence narrative and its violence, its deployment of blood and domination of land and bodies. Usually, the discourse of violence in a nation' logic involves images of penetration to borders and land. However, this essay is about internal violence, about the reproduction of the state not through land, but through bodies, and babies, narratives and memory, knowledge and censorship. To understand this case is to reconsider questions of how Orientalism, as a practice of knowledge and of violence works. The author revisits the concept of Orientalism thereby relocating the different ways in which it internally works within the Israeli nation state. To illustrate her claim, she finds it useful to locate parallel features in the discourse of the Gulf War and the image of Saddam Hussein, created by Western media, and the discourse of the kidnapped Yemenite babies scandal and the image of Rabbi Uzi Meshulam, created by Israeli media. Both cases involve questions of violence, resistance and Western domination. In the author' analysis, she focuses on the complexity in which Orientalism functions when the state demarcates people and identities rather then land and borders. It will be shown how concepts of violence, race and nationalism are reproduced through the media discourse of the kidnapped Yemenite babies at the junction of social conflict and resistance. A sample of newspaper reports on the Yemenite babies affair during the resistance of Rabbi Meshulam are examined, known in Israel as the ‘The Fortification in Yahud’. The author' analysis is also based on her experience as an investigative reporter covering the Yemenite babies affair, and first hand observation of the resistance of Rabbi Meshulam.¹     

Homelessness,housing instability,intimate partner violence,mental health,and functioning: A multi-year cohort study of IPV survivors and their children

Abstract

Homelessness and housing instability frequently accompany intimate partner violence and can negatively impact health and functioning. When children are exposed to homelessness or housing instability their ability to develop and function is compromised. The purpose of this study is to examine the differential impact of homelessness and unstable housing on health and functioning of women and their children over a 2-year period. Two hundred and seventy-seven mothers reporting intimate partner violence (stalking, physical, or sexual violence by an intimate partner) were asked about housing stability, abuse, risk for murder, mental health, employment/wages, and their child's functioning over a 2-year period. Outcomes of mothers reporting homelessness and unstable housing were compared to mothers reporting stable housing. Over one-third (36%) of the mothers reported at least one episode of unstable housing over the 2-year period and 11% reported homelessness. Measures of maternal mental health and child functioning were worse for both unstably housed and homeless women, compared to stably housed women, with a higher risk for sexual abuse and risk for murder for homeless women. New models of rapid rehousing are needed that address not only the housing problems of women who have experienced intimate partner violence but also the mental health and safety issues that the women and their children face.     

Adolescent Violent Behavior

SUMMARY

The focus of this study was on the association between family characteristics (e.g., family structure, family cohesion), race/ethnicity and their relationship to violent behaviors in adolescents. Family characteristics represent one piece of a larger ecological model that includes individual, peer, school, and neighborhood/community factors. The current study uses data from the National Study of Adolescent Health (Wave 1). Add Health was a longitudinal study of adolescents in grades 7 through 12. The survey gathered information about the respondent's health and health-related behaviors, emotional well being, and family and school environment. The variables of interest in this study are all self-reported measures of violent behavior: (1) being in a serious physical fight, (2) seriously injuring someone, (3) pulling a knife or gun on someone, and (4) shooting or stabbing someone. Differences between those who reported being involved in violent behaviors are related, at least in part, to family cohesion, family structure, gender, and race/ethnicity. Family cohesion served as a protective factor in all four models of violent behavior regardless of racial/ethnic group. Attention needs to be focused not only on the other domains involved in this ecological model (e.g., individual, family, peer, school, and neighborhood/community) but also on the possible interactive effects of variables both within and across these domains. Future interventions need to focus their efforts on the multiple dimensions of youth violence as well as give consideration to a multi-pronged approach in addressing the needs of youth at risk for violent behaviors.     

Breaking Singles Up: Sexual Satisfaction among Men and Women

ABSTRACT

Using the National Health and Social Life Survey, we investigate sexual satisfaction by marital status and gender. We disaggregate the “single” category into “never-married” and “ever-married” individuals, rather than lumping never-married, divorced, separated, and widowed individuals into the “single” category. We argue that the use of a combined category neglects variation between never-married and ever-married single individuals due to differences in age and life-course transitions. We find that self-reports of physical and emotional sexual satisfaction vary between ever-married and never-married single individuals, and also between men and women. Further, we find that intimacy and commitment beliefs are associated with only emotional sexual satisfaction for women but with both physical and emotional sexual satisfaction for men.     

Cognitive model of patient aggression towards health care staff: The patient's perspective

Abstract

Aggression towards health care staff has become the focus for research as well as for government intervention. Negative effects upon staff and organizations have been established, yet few detailed explanations are offered for this aggression, and none represents the patient's perspective. This paper presents a model from the patient's perspective that takes account of situational variables, while also focusing upon patient cognitions. It also considers physiological responses related to arousal that might underpin aggression in an anxiety-provoking situation. In a previous study the frequency with which aggression was preceded by some anxiety-provoking event and the extent to which assailants displayed diminished cognitive processing were established; these were incorporated into the model. Increased anxiety commonly experienced by patients can have a negative effect upon cognitive processing. Anxiety generates a hyper-vigilance for threatening stimuli, induces selective attentional bias for threat, and causes a narrowing of attention, thus reducing cues and information upon which to make accurate appraisals and attributions. With such impairments, patients may make negative rather than positive attributions regarding actions of staff, which are frequently anxiety provoking. Thus, patients perceive staff behaviour as threatening rather than benign, and in the absence of positive attributions it will invoke an aggressive response. What health care staff perceive as aggression may be seen by patients as a defence against perceived attack. Changes in policy that take this into account may reduce future aggressive incidents.     

改进的寇尔生育指数及在我国的应用

对寇尔生育指数进行了改造，将结果应用于对我国８０年代妇女生育率变动原因的分析之中。