Disability at the intersections

Complete and accurate understandings of stratification depend on more regular consideration of disability. To build sociologists' recognition of disability as a socially constructed axis of stratification, we first demonstrate the construction of the disability category through classic legitimating processes: moral attributions, biological attributions, separation, and dichotomization. Expanding understandings of basic processes of stratification, we then document the centrality of disability in the social construction of class, race, gender, sexual orientation, and age. Finally, we show various ways disability functions as an axis of stratification in intersection with other key axes of stratification.     

Evaluation of a Training to Reduce Provider Bias Toward Pregnant Patients With Substance Abuse

The objective of this article is not to present a scientific or systematic study, but to provide an initial framework for designing a training workshop to enhance health practitioners’ (nurses, social workers, physicians, etc.) knowledge regarding substance abuse treatment and to decrease their bias toward substance-abusing women, particularly pregnant women in rural communities. We incorporated the 4 Transdisciplinary Foundations from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Competencies Model, with specific competencies targeted that related to provider bias. After the conference, 52 of the 70 participants completed a questionnaire to self-assess knowledge level and confidence in skill related to substance abuse management. Participant mean scores were statistically significantly higher following the conference than 1 week prior (p < .001) in the area of “gender difference with substance abuse,” moving from an average of 2.6 to 4.5 on a 5-point Likert scale. Our conference was successful in increasing attendees’ knowledge about gender difference and substance abuse among pregnant patients.     

Muslims’ social inclusion and exclusion in France,Québec,and Canada: does national context matter?*

This article compares the social experiences of Muslim minorities in three contexts – France, Québec, and English Canada – each reflecting a different approach to immigrant integration. France’s republican model emphasises cultural assimilation and the exclusion of religion from the public sphere; Canada’s multicultural model advocates official recognition of minority cultures; Québec shares Canada’s tradition of large-scale permanent immigration but embodies a unique intercultural discourse of integration, in some ways resembling France. We compare the social experiences of Muslim and non-Muslim minorities in these three settings using the French ‘Trajectories and Origins’ survey (2009) and the Canadian ‘Ethnic Diversity Survey’ (2002) data on reports of discrimination, friendship networks, social trust, voluntarism, and national identity. We find the Muslim/non-Muslim gap in social inclusion is significant in all three settings and results from ethnic, cultural, or racial differences, more than religion. In assessing immigrants’ social inclusion, we suggest consideration be given to: (i) the reality of ‘national models’ in the community, (ii) a tendency for minorities to locate in more accepting segments of mainstream society, and (iii) the limited impact of policies based on national models.     

Standards for Development: Food Safety and Sustainability in Wal‐Mart's Honduran Produce Supply Chains

Public‐private partnerships between supermarket retailers and development agencies help small‐scale producers reach growing domestic markets in developing countries. Drawing on qualitative data that focuses on relationships between producers, development agencies, and Wal‐Mart‐owned supermarkets in Honduras, the research presented here demonstrates how, by introducing food safety standards to development agencies' outreach efforts, but without necessarily certifying producers or offering a price premium, Wal‐Mart uses these standards to simultaneously differentiate production practices by promoting quality, while maintaining a standardized market. As a result, the responsibility and costs for incentivizing growers to change their practices is shifted to nongovernmental organizations. Therefore, although an extensive body of literature describes standards and third‐party certification systems as the means for corporations to control production practices, this research indicates that public‐private partnerships are a new vehicle by which corporations can influence agricultural production practices. In addition, this article argues that the inclusion of food safety standards in development projects leads to the conflation of food safety and sustainability, without adequately interrogating which agroecological processes food safety standards include and exclude. Therefore, retailers' private food safety standards dominate how sustainability is perceived and practiced in the development context.     

Social Solidarity, Democracy and Global Capitalism*

Dans cette étude, nous examinons les hypothèses des partisans de la «mondialisation>> et proposons des solutions totalement opposées. Dans la première partie, nous réfutons les arguments suivants au sujet de la «mondialisation>>: la souveraineté nationale s'érode dans tous les pays; la part de propriété transnationale est plus importante que par le passé; la «mondialisation>> constitue la conséquence inévitable du changement technologique; et la libéralisation de l'économie à l'échelle mondiale renforce la démocratic Dans la deuxième partie, nous examinons les solutions de rechange démocratiques que peuvent offrir les anciens et les nouveaux mouvements sociaux. L'utilisation de fonds d'investissement gérés par le public et engagés selon les besoins des collectivités est considérée comme une solution de rechange à l'orientation axée sur le marché mondial des entreprises transnationales.
This paper critically examines the assumptions of the advocates of "globalization" and develops an alternative that is the polar opposite. The first half of the paper challenges the following assumptions about "globalization": that national sovereignty is eroding for all countries; that the level of transnational ownership is higher now than in the past; that "globalization" has been the inevitable result of technological change; that democracy is strengthened by global economic liberalization. The second half of the paper examines the prospects for the creation of democratic alternatives to globalization in old and new social movements. Socially controlled investment funds that have "location commitment" to communities are seen as an alternative to the globalization vision of transnational corporations.     

Region‐Urbanicity Differences in Locus of Control: Social Disadvantage,Structure, or Cultural Exceptionalism?

People with internal rather than external locus of control experience better outcomes in multiple domains. Previous studies on spatial differences in control within America only focused on the South, relied on aggregate level data or historical evidence, or did not account for other confounding regional distinctions (such as variation in urbanicity). Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study, we find differences in adolescents' loci of control depending on their region and urbanicity are largely attributable to differences in their social background, and only minimally to structural differences (i.e., differences in the qualities of adolescents' schools). Differences that persist net of differences across adolescents and their schools suggest the less internal control of rural Southern adolescents, and the more internal control of rural and urban Northeastern adolescents, may be due to cultural distinctions in those areas. Results indicate region is more closely associated than urbanicity with differences in locus of control, with Western and Northeastern cultures seemingly fostering more internal control than Midwestern and Southern cultures. These findings contribute to research on spatial variation in a variety of psychological traits.     

Surviving the Americanizing New Right*

Benjamin Barber établit un lien entre la mondialisation des entre‐prises et la résurgence des nationalismes ethnoculturels. Selon lui, ces deux phénomènes affaiblissent la démocratie. Barber ne parle pas des effets de la mondialisation sur l'autre aspect du nationalisme — le nationalisme civique, Aetatisé, qui prédomine dans les démo‐craties comme le Canada. Cet article étudie les liens qui unissent ethos, traditions et État au Canada, et qui en font un pays différent des États‐Unis. L'auteur se demande si le nouveau libéralisme de droite des années 1980 et 1990 n'a pas remis en question le caractère distinct du Canada. L'article présente aussi les tendances qui s'opposent à la nouvelle droite libérale au Canada. Benjamin Barber draws a connection between corporate globalization and the resurgence of ethno‐cultural nationalisms. Both weaken democracy, he contends. Barber does not discuss the effects of globalization on the other variety of nationalism—the civic, state‐based kind that predominates in highly diverse, democratic countries such as Canada. This paper examines the state‐based ethos and traditions that have kept Canada distinct from the United States and explores whether the new right liberalism of the 1980s and 1990s has eroded Canada's raison d'etre as a separate country. Counter trends to new right liberalism in Canada are also discussed.     

Solidarity in the age of globalization: Lessons from the anti-MAI and Zapatista struggles

While the Battle of Seattle immortalized a certain image of anti-globalization resistance, processes and agents of contestation remain sociologically underdeveloped. Even with the time-space compression afforded by new information technologies, how can a global civil society emerge among multi-cultured, multi-tongued peoples divided by miles of space and oceans of inequality? This article examines two cases that confronted the U.S. model of global corporate rule: the defeat of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), and the Zapatista challenge to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Evaluating cross-border solidarity in these cases encourages critical evaluation of claims about global civil society, the role of the Internet, and the eclipse of traditional politics in a supposedly post-national age. Contrary to orthodox globalization narratives, our analysis suggests that states, nations, and nationalisms remain key elements in contestation processes, at least in the kinds of cases examined. At the same time, transnational networks played an important role in bypassing unfavorable political opportunity structures at the domestic level, and nurtured incipient processes of framing resistance to neo-liberal globalism across national boundaries.

     

The inclusion of minority groups in clinical trials: problems of under representation and under reporting of data

Objective: To evaluate the representation of minority groups in randomized control trials (RCTs), and the frequency with which this information is reported. Study Design: Reviewers collected data on the racial/ethnic composition of study samples from all RCTs published in six leading medical journals in 1999. Results: Of the 280 RCTs, most (204, 71.3%) provided no information on the race/ethnicity of participants. Of the 89 U.S.-based RCTs, 50 (56.1%) reported their minority distribution. Relative to other trials, those funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) (n = 52) were more likely to report race/ethnicity data (55.8% vs. 23.7%; x2 = 20.9, p <_0.001) and to include nonwhite participants (13.5 % vs. 12.5%; x2=22.7, p<_0.001). Conclusion: Minority groups are currently under-represented in clinical trials. Information on the race and ethnicity of clinical trial participants is currently underreported in six leading medical journals. Reporting of minority group information was significantly better only in NIH funded trials, which also were more likely to include nonwhite participants. This suggests that mandatory reporting policies may have a positive effect on both reporting and representation.     

Exposure to "low-level" aggression in school: associations with aggressive behavior, future expectations, and perceived safety

Examined associations with witnessing and being victimized by "low-level" aggressive acts (e.g., pushing, gossip) and three indicators of psychosocial functioning in a sample of 771 elementary school students from one urban and one suburban school district. Results indicated that exposure to low-level aggression appears to relate to psychosocial functioning in ways similar to more severe forms of aggression. Students who were exposed to higher levels of both witnessing and victimization by low-level aggression reported the highest levels of engagement in aggression, the lowest levels of positive expectations for the future, and the lowest levels of perceived safety. Findings are discussed in the context of research on exposure to aggression in general, with suggestions offered for future studies. Implications of the findings for school-based intervention programs are raised.