Going on tilt: Frequent poker players and control

This paper is based on three years of participant observation in California's legal commercial card parlors and one year observation at an open meeting of Gamblers Anonymous (G.A.). The grounded concept, tilt, is advanced to describe the process of losing control in the gambling situation. Although some problem gamblers and most compulsive gamblers (members of G.A.) did not use this term, they, nonetheless, described the same process. Tilt is defined and broken down into its various components. Paths to, or ways of going on tilt and the means used to avoid tilt are spelt out. Hochschild's concept, emotion work, is used to describe how successful professionals stay off tilt. The major contention of the paper is that all gamblers experience tilt, and their reactions to tilt and to tilt-inducing situations partly determine whether or not gambling becomes a major problem. The implications of tilt are also discussed.I would like to thank Bob Yamashita, Ernie Fong, and Professor Troy Duster for comments on an earlier draft of this paper. I, however, am responsible for the final product. This is a revision of a paper presented at theSeventh International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking in Reno, Nevada, August 1987. Requests for reprints should be sent to the author at the Institute for the Study of Social Change, University of California, 2420 Bowditch Street, Berkeley, CA 94720.     

Researching Children: Methods and Ethics

The appropriateness and desirability of researching children have been issues of some debate. Children may be perceived as non-competent or vulnerable, and proxies have been used as children's representatives. Increasingly researchers are speaking to children directly. Why is this so and what are the methodological and ethical implications of researching children's views? In this paper the authors draw on their own experiences of researching children in the fields of child carers and the impact of the Child Support Act 1991. A number of social, political and legal trends are identified which form a background to the growing interest in children as potential and actual participants in the research process. The theoretical, methodological, ethical and practical issues involved are then identified and described, using examples from two separate studies conducted by the authors.     

The changing influence of religion on U.S. fertility: Evidence from rhode Island

Traditionally one of the indisputable generalizations in demography has been that Catholics have higher fertility than Protestants and Jews (Freedman, Whelpton, & Campbell 1959; Ryder & Westoff 1971; Westoff, Potter, & Sagi 1964; Whelpton, Campbell, & Patterson 1966). Recently, however, doubts have been raised about the continued validity of this longstanding and heretofore widely accepted generalization.     

How science got statistics

The role of statistics in science today goes well beyond the analysis of experimental results: it extends into the fabric of the science itself. Nature seems to operate as much by statistical laws as physical ones. Yet before the mid-19th century no one had an inkling that this was so. The enfolding of statistical concepts is one of the most profound changes in the history of science. Basil Mahon tells how two remarkable men began this transformation.     

Varieties of Liberalism: Canadian Social Policy from the 'Golden Age' to the Present

The dominant welfare regimes approach, like the historical-institutionalism on which it draws, predicts path-dependent responses to contemporary challenges. According to this, Canada's social policy regime clearly belongs to the (mainly Anglo-American) 'liberal' family, where markets and families retain a key role, supplemented by modest state supports. Yet, as some have recognized, there are important differences among liberal regimes and within a particular welfare regime over time. There are, in other words, 'varieties of liberalism'. This article argues, moreover, that in the contemporary period Canadian welfare reform has been characterized by warring principles for redesign. While some have sought to deepen the postwar social project, the main trends have been neo-liberal restructuring and, more recently, policies inspired by 'inclusive liberalism', though less deeply than under Blair's government in the UK. The continued existence of such alternatives suggests the need for a more nuanced conception of path-dependent change, consistent with recent revisionist trends in historical-institutionalism.