“Can/Should/Does One Size Fit All? Does the Pacific Sociological Association Still Meet the Needs of Faculty Members at PhD-Granting Institutions?”

This article addresses the concern expressed by many within the Pacific Sociological Association in recent years that their regional organization is increasingly seen by Research I University sociologists as no longer meeting their professional needs, thus leading to (a) decreasing rates of membership and participation within, (b) a decline in the amount of high quality professional work associated with, and (c) a diminishment of the professional status of, the PSA. Using data gained from a membership survey of sociologists at the 29 Research I Universities in the Western Region of the United States and Canada, the empirical basis of these claims is examined, and their possible implications explored. The results of this investigation suggest that although PSA membership among faculty members at PhD-granting institutions may have declined somewhat over time, this has occurred for a number of very comprehendible reasons, some associated with but others external to the Pacific Sociological Association as a professional organization. In light of these findings, it is the main recommendation of this paper that the PSA should continue to approach this issue in a careful and reasoned manner, doing what it reasonably can to try to meet the professional needs of Research I University sociologists in the 21st century, but being mindful not to jeopardize what has made the PSA important and attractive to its growing number of other constituencies in recent years.     

Social and feminist design in emergency contexts: the Women’s Social Architecture Project,Cox's Bazar,Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

The rapid influx of Rohingya refugees into Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, has led to the formation of huge camps, built on difficult terrain, short of space and with high population density. All these factors present numerous challenges to agencies seeking to provide latrines, water points, and bathing facilities. Feedback gathered from women and girls highlighted significant challenges around access, safety, privacy, and dignity, including management of personal hygiene and menstruation. Within the humanitarian community, site planning and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) infrastructure planning/design processes have mainly been dominated by male architects and engineers, often with gendered assumptions about the user. Acknowledging these challenges, Oxfam implemented the Women’s Social Architecture Project to work with women and adolescent girls, and female architects with a background or interest in social or feminist design and architecture, to add a different perspective into the design and siting of WASH facilities. The project has consisted of formative research with Rohingya women and girls, and design workshops with architects in which Rohingya women have co-created designs that tackle the issues they face regarding WASH facilities. This article provides an account of the progress to date, together with feedback from women and girls and the WASH Sector in Cox's Bazar ahead of the final completion of the project in June 2019.     

Delinquency prevention using family-based interventions

This paper reviews 24 evaluations of prevention programmes including some kind of family-based intervention (usually parent training or parent education), an outcome measure of offending or disruptive child behaviour, a high quality experimental design and a minimum sample size of 100. Programmes are divided into seven categories according to the context of the intervention: home visiting, day care, pre-school, school, clinic, community or multi-systemic therapy. Most interventions were effective in reducing childhood antisocial behaviour and later delinquency, and in some cases their monetary benefits exceeded their monetary costs. General parent education and more formal parent training are both effective prevention techniques. Research is needed to identify the active ingredients of successful programmes, and to establish why some large-scale programmes were not successful. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estimation of the basic reproduction number for infectious diseases from age-stratified serological survey data

The basic reproduction number of an infection, R ₀, is the average number of secondary infections generated by a single typical infective individual in a totally susceptible population. It is directly related to the effort required to eliminate infection. We consider statistical methods for estimating R ₀ from age-stratified serological survey data. The main difficulty is indeterminacy, since the contacts between individuals of different ages are not observed. We show that, given an estimate of the average age-specific hazard of infection, a particular leading left eigenfunction is required to specify R ₀. We review existing methods of estimation in the light of this indeterminacy. We suggest using data from several infections transmitted via the same route, and we propose that the choice of model be guided by a criterion based on similarity of their contact functions. This approach also allows model uncertainty to be taken into account. If one infection induces no lasting immunity, we show that the only additional assumption required to estimate R ₀ is that the contact function is symmetric. When matched data on two or more infections transmitted by the same route are available, the methods may be extended to incorporate the effect of individual heterogeneity. The approach can also be applied in partially vaccinated populations and to populations comprising loosely linked communities. The methods are illustrated with data on hepatitis A, mumps, rubella, parvovirus, Haemophilus influenzae type b and measles infection.     

A short history of randomized experiments in criminology. A meager feast

This article discusses advantages of randomized experiments and key issues raised in the following articles. The main concern is the growth and decrease in the use of randomized experiments by the California Youth Authority, the U.S. National Institute of Justice, and the British Home Office, although other experiments are also discussed. It is concluded that feast and famine periods are influenced by key individuals. It is recommended that policy makers, practitioners, funders, the mass media, and the general public need better education in research quality so that they can tell the difference between good and poor evaluation studies. They might then demand better evaluations using randomized experiments.     

Biotechnology: Movers,Shakers, Winners,Losers

Book reviewed in this article: Biotechnology and Developing Country Agriculture: The Case of Maize. By Carliene Brenner Agricultural Biotechnology: Opportunities for International Development. Edited by Gabrielle J. Persley Biotechnology, Agriculture and Food Biotechnology: Economic and Social Aspects. Edited by E.J. Da Silva, C. Ratledge and A. Sasson