American automobiles and workers’ dreams

This paper reviews Chinoy's Automobile Workers and the American Dream as an example of a lot of work which revolves around themes of alienation, worker degradation and quiescence. Two aspects of the automobile as an item in the sphere of consumption in post-war America are then detailed to try to point to the theoretical assumptions and empirical absences which characterize the dominant tradition exemplified by Chinoy's classic text. The paper ends by making some criticisms of the way production activity is privileged in social analysis and calls for the creation of a sociology of consumption to combat the emphasis on production as the source of social meaning and worth which is institutionalized in much sociology and most Marxism.     

Does it Work for Them — Does it Work for Us? Evaluating a New Model of Team Practice

This article describes a change in team practice from a model targeted at individual families to a combined model that supplements family therapy with group programs for children. Unacceptably long waiting lists for family counselling services, high levels of stress in clinicians, and consumer dissatisfaction motivated this change. Robust quantitative data and a qualitative analysis of the project confirm that the change has made a positive impact and the new treatment model deserves to be continued. The article concludes that internal team changes are insufficient in a treatment context which requires more profound changes beyond the boundaries of the team.     

Does ABLA Test Performance on the ABLA Test Predict Picture Receptive Name Recognition with Persons with Severe Developmental Disabilities?

Research has shown that performance on the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA) test correlates with language assessments for persons with developmental disabilities. This study investigated whether performance on ABLA Level 6, an auditory-visual discrimination, predicts performance on a receptive language task with persons with severe developmental disabilities. Five participants who passed ABLA Level 6, and five who failed ABLA Level 6, were each tested on five 2-choice discriminations that required them to point to pictures of common objects after hearing their names. Four of the five participants who had failed ABLA Level 6 failed all of the receptive name recognition tasks. All five participants who had passed ABLA Level 6 passed all of the name recognition tasks. The practical implications of these results are discussed.     

A study of live supervisory phone-ins in collaborative family therapy: correlates of client cooperation

The behavior of five supervisors, 19 trainee family therapists, and 20 clients before, during, and after 88 live supervisory phone-in events was examined in this study to determine the correlates of client cooperation. Following supervisory phone-in conversations, client cooperation was associated exclusively with the presence and quality of the collaborative behavior shown by the therapist. Isomorphism between the behavior of the supervisor and therapist was not associated with subsequent client cooperation, nor was any particular category of supervisor behavior. Surprisingly, isomorphism between the quality of supervisor and therapist behavior preceded those events where client resistance occurred.     

Professional football and working class culture: English theories and Scottish evidence

This paper reviews certain theories outlined by Taylor, Clarke, Critcher, Dunning et al which try to set out the relations between professional football and working class culture and which, as part of this, seek to explain football hooliganism as resulting from changes in these relationships. Such theories draw on English evidence and English forms and this paper provides some historical and contemporary evidence, concerning hooliganism and community tics, about a major Scottish club – Rangers FC – to indicate that the parallels and causal trajectories these theories suggest do not seem to hold good north of the border. In conclusion, some additional points are made about English theories and Scottish football in order to argue that a good deal more research is required if we want to understand either the symbolic significance of football in working class culture or football hooliganism.     

Permanently ‘in process’: the intersection of migration,work identity and the reality of human resource development in the South African context

This article explores the experiences of skilled Zimbabweans who migrate, only to experience de-skilling upon securing employment in South Africa (SA). This is due to various factors such as insufficient bridging social capital and xenophobia and is exacerbated by the inability of the Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa (HRD-SA) to cater for their employment needs. The article is based on qualitative research conducted within a phenomenological paradigm with Zimbabwean migrant women residing in Port Elizabeth, SA. The Zimbabwean context is discussed, as well as the mixed migration methods utilized and the subsequent negative effect that deskilling and under-employment have on the self-identity. It is argued that work constitutes an important signifier of identity, yet the HRD-SA and practice excludes migrants from achieving their potential, thus resulting in brain waste and downward status mobility. In the final section implications for HRD practice are discussed and recommendations made.     

Football hooligans: old bottle,new whines?

This paper reviews the claims about the explanation of violence around football put forward by Armstrong and Harris in the light of more widespread faults in the analysis of ‘hooliganism’. It argues that conceptual, definitional and methodological problems mean that the data Armstrong and Harris supply should not cause anyone to abandon either of the two theoretical positions they think they criticize. In particular their dismissal of the moral panic type of approach to the study of football hooliganism is rebutted. Evidence concerning Scottish football is supplied to support this and to indicate that all English researchers into this issue require to revise their arguments.