Gay Affirmative Practice: A Model for Social Work Practice with Gay,Lesbian, and Bisexual Youth

Gay affirmative practice has recently been introduced into the social work literature as a culturally sensitive model for working with gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) adults, however, this model has rarely been applied to practice with GLB youth. In this article, the authors review the literature to present the main tenets of gay affirmative practice, outline the challenges that GLB youth face, and delineate the environmental and individual strengths that can be enhanced to promote well-being. The authors then apply the gay affirmative practice model to GLB youth, offering concrete information about the specific knowledge, attitudes, and skills that social workers should acquire to better serve the unique, yet diverse, needs of GLB youth.     

Communicating Global Activism

Many observers doubt the capacity of digital media to change the political game. The rise of a transnational activism that is aimed beyond states and directly at corporations, trade and development regimes offers a fruitful area for understanding how communication practices can help create a new politics. The Internet is implicated in the new global activism far beyond merely reducing the costs of communication, or transcending the geographical and temporal barriers associated with other communication media. Various uses of the Internet and digital media facilitate the loosely structured networks, the weak identity ties, and the patterns of issue and demonstration organizing that define a new global protest politics. Analysis of various cases shows how digital network configurations can facilitate: permanent campaigns; the growth of broad networks despite relatively weak social identity and ideology ties; transformation of individual member organizations and whole networks; and the capacity to communicate messages from desktops to television screens. The same qualities that make these communication-based politics durable also make them vulnerable to problems of control, decision-making and collective identity.     

Risk,trust and knowledge networks in farmers’ learning

This study reports on New Zealand dairy farmers’ access to and use of information as mediated through conditions of risk and trust within the context of their interpersonal social networks. We located participants’ reports of their information use within their perceived environments of trust and risk, following Giddens's [1990. The consequences of modernity. Polity Press, Stanford, CA] typology of trust and risk in pre-modernity and modernity. The research participants were constant users of interpersonal and print information from numerous sources, and monitored their incoming data in the light of strategic needs, reflecting their roles as both farming practitioners and business owners. Socio-spatial knowledge networks (SSKNs) combine individuals’ explanatory cognitive models of information acquisition and use with a micro-geographical analysis of their interpersonal networks. The participants showed characteristics of pre-modern, modern and even post-modern society in respect of their use of complex interactional forms, as well as a blending of individualistic and communitarian practices and concerns in their professional and personal lives.     

The availability of personal and external coping resources: Thier impact on job stress and employee attitudes during organizational restructuring

This study examines the relationships among personal coping resources, social support, external coping resources, job stressors and job strains in a sample of 110 American Telephone and Telegraph employees undergoing a major organizational restructuring. The study expanded on a model suggested by Ashford (1988) by defining another category of coping resources that employees may draw upon to deal with the stressors and strains which occur during major organizational changes. External coping resources were defined as those which provided employees with a sense of 'vicarious control' in stressful situations. Results indicated that personal coping resources, social support and external coping resources had a direct effect upon job stressor and strain levels. No 'buffering' effect of these coplng resources was found. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that external coping resources added to the prediction of job stressors and strains even when pertonal coping resources and social support were entered first into the prediction questions.     

A pilot study of the contribution of empathy to burnout in Salvation Army Officers

Although empathy has been found to distinguish effective counsellors from less effective counsellors, human services professionals who continually experience negative emotional reactions to the feelings that clients express in counselling may be at risk of developing burnout. This study examined the hypothesis that emotional empathy rather than cognitive empathy is associated with burnout. The sample of human services professionals consisted of 71 Salvation Army Officers. Multiple regression was used to investigate whether the dimensions of empathy could predict three aspects of burnout: personal accomplishment, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. The first regression analysis indicated that personal distress and empathic concern were significant predictor of personal accomplishment. The second analysis indicated that personal distress was a significant predictor of emotional exhaustion. The third indicated that empathic concern was a significant predictor of depersonalization. Although these results support the hypothesis, personal distress was negatively associated with personal accomplishment, whereas empathic concern was positively associated with personal accomplishment. The small size of the sample may have influenced the reliability of the findings. A multidimensional approach to the role of empathy in counselling may help human services professionals to manage their emotional reactions when they engage in counselling with distressed clients.     

On the difficulty of making social choices

The difficulty of making social choices seems to take on two forms: one that is related to both preferences and the method used in aggregating them and one which is related to the preferences only. In the former type the difficulty has to do with the discrepancies of outcomes resulting from various preference aggregation methods and the computation of winners in elections. Some approaches and results which take their motivation from the computability theory are discussed. The latter institution-free type of difficulty pertains to solution theory of the voting games. We discuss the relationships between various solution concepts, e.g. uncovered set, Banks set, Copeland winners. Finally rough sets are utilized in an effort to measure the difficulty of making social choices.     

融合型治理:县域城镇化何以助推基层治理有效

基层治理有效是国家治理现代化的重要目标,有赖于对基层社会和民众的多元化需求的及时回应与满足。当前,基层治理大多聚焦于治理资源的整合,而对于治理资源如何转化为治理效能的过程和机理则关注不够,在实践层面也忽视了不同单元、类型和需求下基层治理的差异性和非均衡性。县域城镇化与基层治理在场域、过程和目标上具有耦合性,县域城镇化助推基层治理的关键在于,以要素整合为基础实现资源要素与治理需求有效对接,平衡治理场域内的供需关系,以实现治理资源向治理效能的转化。从供需关系的视角出发,重点关注治理资源向治理效能转化的过程与机制,构建“资源整合-供需平衡-治理有效”的融合型治理分析框架,探析县域城镇化助推基层治理有效的实践路径和运行逻辑。四川省邛崃市的实践表明,借助治理要素、治理单元、治理路径和治理效能的有机融合,融合型治理能推动“供需对接-供需适配-供需调节-供需平衡”的供需关系转换,力求实现基层均衡型善治,为县域内不同治理单元撬动城乡发展资源、促进城乡融合、助推基层治理提供支撑。为此,未来要进一步细化县域城镇化进程中基层单元的类型,挖掘基层治理资源与要素,拓展县域城镇化与基层治理的链接方式,不断推动县域城镇化与基层治理的契合和互促。     

Homogamy by education and migration status in Monterrey,Mexico: changes and continuities over time

This paper reviews changes in homogamy by migration status and educational level in Monterrey, Mexico, through the analysis of marriage patterns for two cohorts of men born in 1905–1934 and 1940–1969. Results show a significant increase in educational homogamy, as well as in homogamy by rural origins. The changes suggest that education has played an increasingly important role in the process of mate selection, although certain particularistic characteristics, such as being a rural immigrant, are still important in marriage formation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the relationship between homogamy and social stratification.

中国的离婚率与社会结构变化分析

从中国的离婚率与社会结构变化的时间序列分析中可以看出 :离婚率随非农产业人口比重的提高而提高 ,并有三年的时滞 ;离婚率也和人口城市化的发展有密切的关系 ,两者的比重一并提高 ,但约有五年的时滞。因这两方面社会结构的变化 ,直接影响妇女就业率提高和妇女职业结构的变化 ,而由此引起的人口迁移流动的大变动 ,也必然影响婚姻家庭观念的变化