The Myth of the Computer Hacker

The seriousness of computer hacking is not exaggerated, it is far worse than that. The computer hacker has attained the status of myth; society associates all computer crime with a mythical perpetrator that bears no resemblance to reality. This paper will argue that in the early stages of the myth the computer hacker was regarded as a highly skilled but mentally disturbed youth who has an unhealthy association with computers. The new reality of electronic commerce resulted in pressures that culminated in the computer hacker becoming regarded as a dangerous criminal. A thorough analysis of the statistics will demonstrate that the majority of computer intruders are neither dangerous nor highly skilled, and thus nothing like the mythical hacker.     

Reporting on The State of Canada's Environment

The 750 page report,The State of Canada's Environment, is the collaborative effort of more than 100 experts from universities, private industry, environmental groups, and government. In 27 chapters the report addresses four fundamental questions about Canada's environment: what are the key environmental conditions and trends in Canada; what are the links between human activities and environmental changes; what are the environmental, economic, and health implications of these changes; and what are Canadians doing to address the concerns identified? Topics examined include: environmental components (air, fresh and marine water, land, and wildlife), human activities that affect the environment (e.g. forestry, agriculture, fisheries, urbanization), as well as six regional case studies and major environmental issues such as toxic chemicals, ozone depletion and acid rain. The report also indicates areas where Canadians have made progress toward sustainable development and identifies areas where work remains to be done. Actions that are being taken to strengthen state of the environment reporting in Canada, including the development of indicators, are also briefly discussed.     

Toward the development of an adolescent gambling problem severity scale

The development and initial psychometric properties of an adolescent gambling problem severity measure are described. The scale, based on a revision of the South Oaks Gambling Screen (Lesieur & Blume, 1987), was administered to 1,101 older (ages 15 to 18) Minnesota adolescents as part of a state-wide gambling survey. Study results indicated that the scale had moderate internal consistency reliability and was significantly related to alternate measures of problem severity for male subjects. Because the rate and severity of gambling among females was very low, the psychometric adequacy of the scale for females is not known at this time. The implications of study findings to the conceptual understanding of adolescent gambling problem severity as well as study limitations and future research needs, are discussed.Support for the study was provided by the Minnesota Department of Human Services and the Center for Addiction Studies, University of Minnesota, Duluth. The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance from Robert Blum, Linda Harris, Durand Jacobs, J. Laundergan, Alan Mathiason, Brenda Miller, James Schaefer, school officials from the participating high schools, and interviewers who assisted with the telephone survey.     

Queers,Bodies and Postmodern Sexualities: A Note on Revisiting the “Sexual” in Symbolic Interactionism

This article reflects on the linkage between developments in symbolic interactionist theory over the past thirty years and the sociological study of the social construction of sexualities. After some personal reflections on the development of the theory, four main themes are highlighted: the links to postmodernism and queer theory; the paths to new research styles; some internal problems with the theory; and the need to reinstall the importance of the body. The article concludes that symbolic interactionism remains a major approach to the study of sexuality.     

Unions,PAC contributions,and the NAFTA vote

Political action committees (PACs), especially those controlled by organized labor and business, have been shown to affect Congressional voting. We explore how PACs influenced the House of Representatives’ vote on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The NAFTA vote is analyzed because organized labor strongly opposed the treaty while business generally supported it and because of the straight-forward voting generated by its fast-track status. Probit analysis of a unique, unpublished data set containing information about PAC and non-PAC contributions to the 1992 House election campaigns demonstrates that Representatives who depended largely on labor PACs tended to oppose NAFTA, while Representatives who derived a large proportion of their campaign contributions from business PACs tended to favor its passage.     

The humorous construction of disability: 'stand-up' comedians in the United States

We examine how stand-up [sic] comedy constructs, circulates, perpetuates and/or disrupts stereotypical images of disabled persons in the United States. We use disabled people, rather than people-first language, to remind readers that disability is an ill-defined, culturally imposed attribute. Although humor is culturally specific, we draw on works of an international cadre of humanities scholars and social scientists to ground our analyses. We conclude that disability humor constitutes an emerging, liberatory art form. Disabled and non-disabled comedians elicit thought-provoking laughter and present disability as an interesting way to live. However, disabling humor still perpetuates stereotyping and isolation.     

西方主导媒介与“逆流”媒介在当代媒介文化中的对立及相互作用

全球文化秩序长期以来都被西方发达国家的媒介所主导,其突出表现在媒介与传播资源从西方发达国家向欠发达国家的单向流动,从而在某些欠发达国家形成主导地位,文化殖民成为可能.随着时代的发展与变化,媒介资源流动方向由单向发展为多向,媒介的应用背景随之改变,在全球化背景下的重新评估也成为必然.本文透过不同市场受众对于媒介产品的反应,以及发达与欠发达国家在媒介产品内容模式上的发展与更新两个角度,分析文化殖民主义下的主导媒介与“逆流”媒介两股势力之间的对立以及相互作用的关系,并从中总结出全球媒介产品发展与更新的趋势.     

Digital Strategies for Building Spiritual Intimacy: Families on a “Wired” Camino

Qualitative Sociology - Researchers have explored the role that information and communication technologies (ICTs) play in mediating both religious practice and intergenerational family...