Knowledge and the practice of sociology

Noting that sociology, like other disciplines, usually discusses itself as if its content—its body of knowledge—were created by a wholly intellectual process, I am adopting in this paper the approach of the sociology of knowledge by emphasizing the existential factors that influence knowledge. I employ the poorly developed concept of occupation, and argue that in the United States academic disciplines like sociology are best analyzed as professions, which areorganized occupations. American professions sustain their present position by the functional differentiation of members into separate administrative, research or scholarship, and practice roles. Practice roles serving lay clients or patrons provide the basic economic support of the profession as a whole. The characteristic practice role of most academic arts and science disciplines is teaching. Using sociology and its special position in the undergraduate curriculum as an example, I suggest that the contingencies of teaching influence what knowledge is used, underlie at least part of the public image of the discipline, and determine some of what becomes part of the published corpus of the discipline's knowledge.     

Healthy Barbs: Activism Confronts Mortality

Barbara Brenner, JD, was the Executive Director of Breast Cancer Action (BCA) from 1995–2010. Before that, she was a longtime activist in the anti-war movement and an attorney who, for most of her career, practiced public policy law. After she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993 at the age of 41, she took the helm of BCA. Under her leadership, the organization moved into a position of national advocacy—demanding research on the causes and prevention of breast cancer, including the role of industrial pollutants. Barbara started the “Think Before You Pink” campaign, encouraging people to question whether companies that display pink ribbons actually produce products that harm women's health or generate any funds to fight breast cancer. Her blog, “Healthy Barbs,” challenged readers to critique routine healthcare practices and policies. Barbara received numerous awards, including a Jefferson Award for Public Service in 2007, the Smith College Medal in 2012, and the ACLU-Northern California's Lola Hanzel Courageous Advocacy Award in 2012. Barbara had a recurrence of breast cancer in 1996. She died of complications associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, on May 10, 2013.     

“This will help your children”: Service providers’ experiences with military families during cycles of deployment

ABSTRACT

Military families face not only the same challenges as other families, but also unique issues due to their military involvement. Parenting programs for civilian families can be helpful, but they do not generally cover the specific issues faced by military families. The purpose of this qualitative study was to gather information from a focus group of eight service providers about the types of issues that affect military families, such that content and delivery of workshops at a social service agency could be formed to specifically cater to military families. This study utilized a phenomenological approach, and analyses revealed areas for social service involvement around the cycle of deployment. Specifically, social services could be helpful by using psychoeducational and normalization techniques around the five major themes that resulted from this study: (1) the issues of servicemembers psychologically withdrawing before deployment, (2) family cohesion and connectedness during and after deployment, (3) family stability during reintegration of the service member, (4) military families experience many of the same challenges that nonmilitary families do (such as domestic violence and financial issues), and (5) utilizing a military culture framework for all military family programs.     

Can Heterosexism Harm Organizations? Predicting the Perceived Organizational Citizenship Behaviors of Gay and Lesbian Employees

An initial test and validation of a model predicting perceived organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) of lesbian and gay employees were conducted using structural equation modeling. The proposed structural model demonstrated acceptable goodness of fit and structural invariance across 2 samples (ns = 311 and 295), which suggested that altruistic OCB performance is precipitated by workplace outness. Furthermore, stigmatization salience and organizational climate for heterosexism predict levels of workplace outness. Organizational climate for heterosexism is negatively related to stigmatization salience. When the model was tested on 2 samples, all structural paths except 1 were significant.     

Effects of Race and Sex on Work Group Cooperation Vs. Competition

This study examines whether differences in individualism-collectivism by race and sex result in differences in cooperation vs. competition. Expanding upon the earlier work of Cox et al., individual and group-level comparisons are made by race and sex. Exclusively examining race-based effects, Cox et al. had suggested that blacks display greater cooperation than do whites. Our findings concur; however, we are able to demonstrate this using a more complete group-level comparison. Given literature suggesting sex to be as relevant as race when administering work force diversity, we further expanded upon the earlier study by testing for such effects. While some previous research has suggested a tendency for women to behave more cooperatively than do men, our findings show that this is not necessarily the case. Specifically, this study demonstrates that sex decreases in importance, when controlling for race. Applications and suggestions for future research are presented.     

On Models and theories of inference; structural or pivotal analysis

Recent material is surveyed concerning the foundations of statistical models, the definition and logic of statistical inference, and the additives used in various applications of theories of inference. This background is then used to compare structural/structured models [Fraser 1966, 1968, 1979] and pivotal models [Barnard 1974, 1981]; the models are found to be identical except for nomencalture and basic justification which supports the structural format. An outline is given of the development of the structural/structured model and of the corresponding mode of inference. The recent pivotal methods of analysis are assessed with this development as background.     

Resolving complex community problems: Applying collective leadership and Kotter's change model to wicked problems within social system networks

How does collective leadership within social networks resolve chronic and complex problems common to communities? Unfortunately, sometimes it does not, but when it does, the outcome may be truly extraordinary. We use a case study approach to explain how one Midwest community within the USA applied collective leadership within a community network to reduce teen births. It took ten years of what many identified as provocative media campaigns and comprehensive sex education programs to reduce teen births by 65%, significantly exceeding the stated goal. Using Kotter's change model as a backdrop, powerful strategies and provocative creativity reveal courageous leadership within a social network of diverse people and organizations focused on improving the social well being of their community.     

邬焜和信息元哲学

在2010年8月北京举行的第四届国际信息科学基础大会上,西安交通大学的邬焜教授第一次用英文提交了将近三十年来的信息理论与哲学研究成果。其理论(信息哲学的基础理论:BTPI)聚焦于信息的自然本体论属性,以及它们对于适当理解信息的社会功能的重要性。邬教授的BTPI理论,关于需要统一诸多关键学科及其规划的新信息观,作为一种元哲学对一般信息理论(这次大会的主题)而言形成了一个主要贡献。所描述的理论能够形成一个新的跨学科范式的部分,在其中信息具有核心作用。信息元哲学的协同应用能够为解决信息领域的关键性突出问题做出贡献,并为新兴信息社会的伦理学发展提供进一步的支持。