Farmers,the Practice of Farming and the Future of Agroforestry: An Application of Bourdieu's Concepts of Field and Habitus

Abstract Agroforestry, the practice of raising crops and trees together in ways that are mutually beneficial, provides farmers with an alternative to more conventional farming practices. In this paper, we apply Bourdieu's concepts of “field” and “habitus” in an attempt to better understand the practice of farming and the role that agroforestry may have in farming systems. Analysis is based on qualitative and quantitative interviews of farmers and other key informants in two regions, Fox‐Wyaconda Watershed in northeast Missouri and Scott County in southeast Missouri. Within the field of farming, farmers emphasized the importance of economic, family and rental relations. Important habitus considerations include different interpretations of what constitutes farming and what constitutes forestry. Based on Bourdieu's theoretical framework, we offer three alternative paths of social change that may lead to more widespread utilization of agroforestry.     

Factors Affecting Children’s Adjustment to the Death of a Parent: The Social Work Professional’s Viewpoint

This study investigated factors affecting the adjustment of parentally bereaved children by reviewing existing literature and comparing it to observations made by professional social workers. Interviewees had between 1 1/2 and 22 years of experience in counseling bereaved children. The specific factors examined were age and sex of the bereaved child, circumstances of the death, and adjustment of remaining caregiver. Participants (n = 5) responded to an interview instrument specifically designed for this study which contained seven in-depth, open-ended questions. Participants’ replies were mostly in accordance with the literature, but also generated some new perspectives that had not been previously considered for this study and had not appeared in the literature. This study has implications for practice with parentally bereaved children and their surviving caregivers.Rebecca M. Hope, LCSW, Outpatient Clinician, New River Valley Community Services, 700 University City Boulevard, Blacksburg, VA 24060.Diane M. Hodge, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Social Work, Radford University, P.O. Box 6958, Radford, VA 24141; e-mail: dmhodge@radford.eduAddress correspondence to Rebecca M. Hope, LCSW, Outpatient Clinician, New River Valley Community Services, 700 University City Boulevard, Blacksburg, VA 24060; e-mail: rmhope@verizon.net     

Spirituality and child welfare reunification: a narrative analysis of successful outcomes

When children are removed from their families because of maltreatment, the child welfare system seeks reunification whenever possible. Despite the importance of this goal, little is known about families who are able to achieve and maintain successful reunification. This qualitative study conducted in‐depth interviews with 15 families who completed their child welfare case plans, were reunited with their children and remained together for at least 1 year post‐reunification. Narrative analysis using a combination of thematic and structural coding was completed to examine the strengths and process families discussed related to their successful child welfare outcomes. This paper discusses one of those strengths, spirituality, in greater depth. Specifically, 12 participants situated the strength of spirituality within their stories as an important narrative element they perceived as critical, leading to important changes. Findings highlight the benefits some families receive from their spiritual beliefs, practices and faith communities when working towards reunification, suggesting child welfare practitioners be prepared to identify and honour this family strength.     

The Effect of Population Growth on Economic Growth: A Meta‐Regression Analysis of the Macroeconomic Literature

Many studies have sought to gauge the impact of population growth on economic growth. A well‐known stylized fact of this literature is that the estimated effects of population growth measures on economic growth are not robust, varying between being positive, negative, and insignificantly different from zero. The present study analyzes 471 statistical regressions from 29 prominent economic growth studies using meta‐regression analysis to identify the effect of alternative methodologies on key population growth results. This study finds that a broad set of methodological factors explains more than half of the variation in the population growth effects observed from this literature, including the types of variables used to measure population growth, the countries selected, the time frame of the analysis, and the nature of the control variables specified. The study also yields results that have implications for policymakers, especially insofar as several policy factors seem to influence the population change–economic growth nexus. Particularly strong is the evidence in support of the increasingly adverse effects of population growth in the post‐1980 period, suggesting that demographic issues should warrant greater attention than they currently receive from the policymaking community.     

Substance use among older youth transitioning from foster care: Examining the protective effects of religious and spiritual capital

Among older youth transitioning from the foster care system, this longitudinal study examined the association of religious and spiritual capital to substance use in the past year at age 19. Participants consisted of African American (N = 179) and White non‐Hispanic (N = 133) older youth in foster care. Drawing from social capital theory, it was posited that religious service attendance (a proxy for religious capital) and belief in a spiritual force (a proxy for spiritual capital) would be inversely associated with substance use. Multiple logistic regression results indicated support for the first and second hypothesis for White foster youth only. Among White foster youth, more frequent religious service attendance and greater belief in a spiritual force were associated with a lower likelihood of illegal substance and polysubstance use. No association between religious or spiritual capital and substance use was found among African American foster youth. The findings underscore the importance of conducting spiritual assessments to help ensure older foster youth who have strong religious or spiritual orientations are in environments where they are accommodated and supported.     

Unruly bodies at conference

Academic conferences embody a set of prescribed regulative practices. This article considers some of the tensions that arise when these normative expectations are disrupted by unruly bodies. As scholars of disability studies we lament the lack of understanding within an ableist society that is resistant to change. In this article, however, I invite us to explore closer to home to consider how unruly bodies might enable reflection on how disability is created even within our own ‘expert’ environments. It is argued here that new ways of conceptualising and accommodating behaviour at conference are required if these are to exemplify the inclusive and welcoming spaces desired by us all.     

Leading beyond the bottom line, Part 4. The questions it has raised

The Leading Beyond the Bottom Line article series has received an overwhelming response from ACPE members, mostly in enthusiastic support of this new leadership concept. Some of the important questions raised by members are presented with answers from the authors. This article also explores the moral challenge of leadership and why health care is more than a business. In recent years, there's been confusion about the role of the health care enterprise, its leadership and its management. We have lost our way about the "moral" thing, the "right" thing, because we have no philosophy to guide us. To manage or lead in this "business" of health care, a philosophy is required that recognizes the multiple elements to which the leader has responsibility and obligations: the customers, community, employees, and, certainly, the financial assets.     

Spiritual ecomaps: a new diagrammatic tool for assessing marital and family spirituality

This paper develops a new diagrammatic spiritual assessment tool, the spiritual ecomap, for use with individuals, couples, and families. While a genogram portrays a family's history over time, a spiritual ecomap provides a valuable supplement by depicting a family's current relationships to critical ecological systems in space. The spiritual ecomap is based upon an anthropological framework conceptualized in the spiritual formation tradition and can be used with families from diverse spiritual traditions. I use a case study to familiarize the reader with the instrument, and offer suggestions for its application.     

Analysis of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Maternal Cohort Study: the Discordant Case–Control Pairs

The progeny of the affected and non-affected dams in the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) cohort study were paired in terms of their farm of origin and approximate date of birth. This paper presents an exact logistic regression analysis that avoids modelling the differences between the pairs and so analyses only the discordant pairs. There is some evidence that the pairs in which the affected animal was born to the affected dam tend to be those in which the onset of BSE in the affected dam preceded or occurred soon after the calving. This suggests some occurrence of maternal transmission.     

Natural Change in the Environment: A Challenge to the Pressure-State-Response Concept

The pressure-state-response framework is a powerful approach to environmental assessment. In many of its current expressions, however, it ignores the background natural processes that play a major role in determining environmental and ecosystem health. Clearly, policies must be focused on human actions that scar the landscape and harm the environment, but coping with environmental change also requires an assessment of the natural processes that take place whether or not human influences are at work. A newly-developed class of environmental indicators (geoindicators), presented here in brief, may be helpful in understanding the interaction of human and natural processes and impacts. Explicit recognition of the need to include natural conditions in the indicator system is essential in the transition from environmental reporting to sustainability reporting.