Examining the Nursing Home Physical Environment Through Policy-Driven Culture Change

A critical need exists to challenge approaches to nursing home care due to rigid organizational factors and hospital-like culture. It has been argued that resident care needs to move toward a person-centered approach by addressing the organizational, social, and physical environments in nursing home facilities, a process often known as culture change. In response to this need, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has created funding for pay for performance (P4P) nursing home incentive programs to allow nursing home providers to receive CMS reimbursements for culture change in the facilities. Through care staff interviews, site observations, and a document review, this qualitative study assesses the impact of a Midwestern state P4P incentive program in three participating nursing homes. Using an environment and behavior (E-B) policy orientation framework, this study examines culture change through a focus on policy, the physical environment, place attachment, and social and psychological processes in the study settings.     

Heating up the debate? Measuring fragmentation and polarisation in a German climate change hyperlink network

Research into polarisation on the internet has so far primarily focused on contentious issues and yielded contradictory results. Shifting the focus to a non-contentious setting, this article combines community detection with brokerage analysis and exponential random graph models to assess the degree of polarisation at different levels of a German hyperlink network on climate change. Although homophily accounts for a moderate degree of polarisation at the top level of the network, the communities reveal that other factors prove more decisive in shaping its structure and the article thus contributes to a more refined understanding of the nature of online polarisation.     

Family Therapy and the Pedagogy of the Oppressed: Therapeutic Use of Songs in Apartheid South Africa

A central issue for family therapy is the critical question of how to define its role in influencing social change. Family therapy has tended to focus on how to liberate and empower individual clients, not communities, from the travails of tradition. This article highlights social change mechanisms implemented by the oppressed majority in South Africa during the apartheid period. It draws inspiration from the pedagogy of the oppressed articulated by Steve Biko and other members of his generation. This enabled the Black majority in South Africa ‘to name their world by reflecting on their conditions, imagining a better world, and then taking action to create it’ (Freire, 1968, p. 253) through the use of revolutionary songs that resulted in the collapse of the cruel apartheid system. The implications for family therapy are discussed.     

Critical Reflections on the March for Science

Using MacKendrick (2017) as a springboard, this essay explores the March for Science as an example of social mobilization. I lay out some concerns regarding the use of this tactic as a response to attacks on science and suggest some ways sociology could contribute to the development of more efficacious actions to address the denigration of scientific knowledge.     

The Transnational Tilt of the Treadmill and the Role of Trade Openness on Carbon Emissions: A Comparative International Study, 1965–2010

There are various schools of thought regarding the relationship between the environment and economy. Ecological modernization argues that the harmful effects of economic growth and development on the environment decline through time, whereas the treadmill of production and ecologically unequal exchange postulate different perspectives. This study relies on World Bank and World Resources Institute data for the period of 1965–2010. Time‐series cross‐sectional Prais‐Winsten (PW) regression models with panel‐corrected standard errors (PCSE) are employed to examine whether economic growth and trade openness intensified or decoupled in relation to three measures of carbon dioxide (CO₂₎ emissions during this period. The findings of this study indicate that there has been a “tilt” in the treadmill of production—that is, the most environmentally degrading production processes have moved to less developed countries. Furthermore, integration into the world economy has been associated with an intensification in CO₂ emissions for less developed countries. Surprisingly, however, this phenomenon does not seem to be driven by exports sent to high‐income nations, suggesting that there are mechanisms embodied within the global organization of production that require further exploration.     

社会转型期助人被讹现象的人类学分析

历史经验表明,现代化过程往往会导致传统与现代在价值观、道德判断和行为规范方面的冲突;当代中国也不可避免要经历这些变化。通过分析助人被讹现象的特点、社会原因和道德后果,试图揭示社会转型期间两种伦理体系的冲突及其对个体行动者的影响。文章将首先考察"做好事被讹"现象的主要特征。大多数讹人者都是那些本该获得同情和帮助的年长者。再将探讨"做好事被讹"现象对社会的多方面影响,认为"做好事被讹"事件尽管少有发生,但它对社会信任、同情和道德互惠原则造成了重创。最后探究导致这种令人恼火的行为产生的多种社会原因,也广泛讨论了当代中国社会的道德风貌。     

中国人口变动与经济增长

人口具有生产和消费的双重属性,因此人口变动与经济增长密切相关。考察中国改革开放以来的经济增长态势,以人口为中心系统地分析影响中国改革开放以来经济持续高速增长的主要因素。中国的人口变动主要从四个方面促进了改革开放以来经济持续的高速增长;如果没有其他突发性因素的冲击,单从人口变动因素来看,中国经济还可能再持续增长二十年。     

Changing men,changing times – fathers and sons from an experimental gender equality study

The aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for addressing intergenerational transmission, historical change and agency. The framework will be employed to analyse the findings from a longitudinal follow‐up study over two generations of men, where couples from Norway participated in an experimental research study, the Work‐Sharing Couples Project, which aimed to promote egalitarian work–family adaptations in the early 1970s. The original study was based on both spouses working part‐time and shift parenting. The follow‐up study concluded that the untraditional work–family arrangement had not been passed on to the sons. The article develops a multidimensional analysis of the work–family adaptations of men in two generations: the untraditional adaptation of fathers in the 1970s; and the neo‐traditional adaptations of sons in the 2000s. In developing a four‐dimensional approach to intergenerational transmission and social change, the article contributes to the study of intergenerational transmission through the comparison of situated agency in different generations and time/spaces. Taking into account different aspects of time and space, personal biography, discursive and material structures of opportunity, and intergenerational dynamics at the family level as well as at social level, the article contributes to theorizing longitudinal qualitative research by linking the micro‐level to the macro‐level.     

百年中国宪法变迁与宪政发展的特点和启示

中国从1908年8月清政府颁布《钦定宪法大纲》起,至今已有百余年的宪法变迁和宪政发展历程.它经历了晚清预备立宪时期的宪政运动,北洋军阀时期的立宪和宪政运动,国民政府时期的立宪和宪政运动,新中国成立后中国共产党的立宪和推动这几个宪政运动阶段.深入研究百年中国的宪法变迁和宪政运动的发展,有益于我们从中汲取立宪和宪政运动的经验教训,推动中国特色社会主义宪政建设.     

Traditional versus Western perceptions of mental illness: women of Moroccan origin treated in an Israeli mental health center

This paper focuses on the problems encountered in providing Westernized psychiatric treatment to a population with traditional healing beliefs. The sample comprised women of Moroccan origin living in Israel undergoing treatment for psychiatric disorders (N=38), and their treating psychiatrists (N=9). Ethnographic interviews were conducted among both groups. The results revealed that the symptoms, perceptions of the illness, and problems encountered in the therapeutic relationship differed across three age groups, young women (20–30 years), more mature women (31–42 years), and older women (43–60 years). While cultural conflict appeared to affect the development of mental illness in each group, this was most pronounced among women in the middle age range. Moreover, problems in the therapeutic alliance were greatest in this age group. The data from the therapists indicated that they maintained a Western perspective in both their understanding and diagnoses of these patients' illnesses. The different perspectives of the therapists and each of the three groups of women are discussed. It is concluded that professionals treating traditional populations must avoid imposing Western standards, and consider the treatment in the context of cultural beliefs. The developmental stages of the individual, and the stage of acculturation must also be taken into account if treatment is to be effective.