Negotiating Role Definitions and the Working Consensus in Self-Work*

Definitions of social roles and the maintenance of a working consensus are two kinds of background expectations which are important for actors’accomplishment of self-work. Interactionists have traditionally assumed that these background expectations are unambiguously available to social actors as they negotiate situated meanings of selves and situations. Using data from dyadic role-play conversations, this study examines instances where interactants reference these expectations as ambiguous or problematic. The findings show that the situated meanings of role definitions and the working consensus are continually subject to potential negotiation. The implications of these findings for future research and theory on self-work in social interaction are discussed.     

Compulsive gambling and the medical model

The medical model as a conceptual and operative approach to compulsive gambling is discussed. The terms medical model and disease are defined and the practical implications of their application to compulsive gambling are explored. Special attention is given to the addictive disease concept. Finally, a variety of objections to the medical model are described, but it is concluded that the many individual and social advantages of the medical model make it the preferred conceptualization at our present state of knowledge.     

Exploration to Foster Career Development

Responses to the Adult Career Concerns Inventory (ACCI: Super, Thompson, Lindeman, Myers, & Jordaan, 1988) were organized through cluster analysis to identify different ways in which adults use exploratory behavior to cope with career development tasks. Significant differences in life-role salience among the types of adult career explorers identified were also investigated. Findings indicated a variety of ways in which adults use exploratory behavior. However, no significant differences were found in life-role salience among the types of career explorers. The discussion explains how career counselors can interpret their clients' ACCI profiles to select appropriate career interventions.     

Curved Chaotic Map Time Series Models and Their Stochastic Reversals

This paper considers two types of chaotic map time series models, including the well-known tent, logistic and binary-shift maps as special cases; these are called curved tent and curved binary families. Deterministic behaviour is investigated by invariant distributions, Lyapunov exponents, and by serial dependency. Stochastic time reversal of the families is shown to produce models which have a broader range of stochastic and chaotic properties than their deterministic counterparts. The marginal distributions may have concentrations and restricted supports and are shown to be a non-standard class of invariant distribution. Dependenc y is generally weaker with the reversed stochastic models. The work gives a broad statistical account of deterministic and stochastically reversed map models, such as are emerging in random number generation, communica tion systems and cryptography     

Counterurbanisation and rural depopulation revisited: landowners,planners and the rural development process

"This paper reopens the debate between Weekley (1988) and Rowsell (1989) over why pockets of depopulation have persisted within parts of rural Britain which have experienced net growth through counterurbanisation. It argues that Weekley has not fully appreciated the context for local population losses, namely the emergence of a new structural relationship between people, households, and dwellings, and the growing tension between production and consumption interests in rural locales. Moreover, the paper disputes claims that depopulation is triggered by the actions of either the landowner or the planner. Drawing on case study material informed by critical realism, it argues that planners and landowners have been drawn into an asymmetrical power relationship. This has tended to buttress landed interests and, in so doing, reproduce mechanisms which protect the less populous communities from growth and change."