The Future of Environmental Justice Research: A Response to Gould and Weinberg

Sociological Forum -     

GETTING INTO THE WEEDS: DOES LEGAL MARIJUANA ACCESS BLUNT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN COLLEGE?

This paper examines the effect of legal access to marijuana on student performance stemming from a voter-approved initiative legalizing marijuana for those 21 and older in the State of Washington. Using panel data from a medium-sized public university, we use a within-student and within-class estimator to show that legalization reduces students' grades, with an effect size about one-half the impact of gaining legal access to alcohol. Consistent with how marijuana consumption affects cognitive functioning, we find that students' grades fall furthest in courses that require more quantitative skills. These effects are largely driven by men and low performers. (JEL I23, I18, K32)     

Intervening with Couples Experiencing Domestic Violence: Development of a Systemic Framework

Current gendered interventions for couples experiencing intimate partner violence often do not address the complex systemic issues, nor allow for couple therapy. Experience of working in men's behaviour change group programs (or batterer programs) and with heterosexual couples, indicates this is not enough. Change options for men perpetrating domestic violence and support for partners are generally provided by individual services or gendered groups, located in separate agencies. This article initially poses some of the inadequacies of this gendered, ‘one size fits all’ ideology, which may compromise safety when couples stay together or there is shared parenting. It then explores further questions and possibilities raised by utilising a systemic lens in working with partners and families. It is possible to work systemically with a couple without compromising safety and accountability, where there is flexibility at intake, a both/and approach, ongoing assessment of risk, collaboration between professionals, and good transitions between individual and conjoint work. This article describes a systemic practice framework for working with partners, utilising individual, group, and conjoint sessions in a recursive four phase approach.     

Rural social work The perceptions and experiences of five remote practitioners

Abstract

Living and working as a remote, rural social worker is a challenging experience. This qualitative study explores the experiences of five longer-term social workers in rural Western Australia. It provides a glimpse of their world including initial experiences, factors which support long-term rural practice, the demands and skills needed, the difficulties working in a bureaucracy and the positive aspects of rural practice. Tentative conclusions indicate that rural practice is distinct, due to the demands of living and working in the same community. Moreover, skills must be applied in the context of few secondary referral points or after hours services, and huge distances. The difficulty of maintaining professional identity and feelings of personal isolation are significant, but are compensated for by families who are settled and reluctant to leave, These findings can be used to inform social work education and improve retention of workers and quality of rural practice.     

The Two Faces of Toxic Waste: Trends in the Spread of Environmental Hazards

Data from the Massachusetts' Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the U.S. Census indicate that the toxic waste crisis is worsening. In addition to the contamination of deindustrialized urban areas comes increasing contamination in many newly industrialized suburbs. This results in both race and class biases with disproportionate amounts of toxic waste in urban communities of color and working-class (predominantly white) suburbs. Despite these region-specific associations, new evidence indicates that the single best indicator of toxic hazards, before controlling for region, is the percentage of community taxes from commercial and industrial sources. This raises important questions regarding sources of race and class biases and how to assess environmental injustices.     

Collective Bargaining and Community College Faculty: What Is the Wage Impact?

Studies that measure the impacts of collective bargaining on the salary of faculty in two-year colleges are limited. Most studies of faculty unions have used data that combine faculty in both two-year and four-year institutions. Recent work has demonstrated that past estimates of the impacts of unions on full-time faculty salaries in higher education suffer from multiple data, methodological, and statistical problems. This paper addresses these deficiencies, and the results support the claim that collective bargaining increases faculty salaries in two-year institutions, though by less than previously documented.