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The paper deals with the changing relationship between economics and sociology in Pareto's thought and suggests a new interpretation of this relationship. Pareto's opus magnum in the field, the Trattato di Sociologia Generale (1916, French ed. 1917), is usually considered the result of the abandonment of economics by the late Pareto in favour of another field of interest, sociology—the realm of the analysis of non-rational actions—and on the basis of this interpretation it has been largely neglected by economists. This paper maintains that the sociology of the Trattato has to be considered not as an abandonment of interest in economics, but rather as a programme for the reconstruction and transformation of economics in a perspective that today could be called 'behaviourist'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foundations are one of the oldest organizational forms globally; their number and resources, as well as their socio-political and economic importance, have steadily continued to grow. Yet, foundations' attributes, activities, and actual achievements remain underexplored and poorly understood. This is particularly noticeable in the context of global policy and transnational administration, an area where foundations tend to be subliminal players, acting as a widely unrecognized socio-political undercurrent. Addressing the resulting need for better and alternative conceptualizations of foundations, our paper uses French pragmatic sociology of critique (FPSC), a non-structuralist, post-Bourdesian, approach to sociology, to theorize philanthropic foundations within the policy agora. Through FPSC, we present foundations as a composite setup of activity, where critically reflexive actors bring normative ideologies and knowledge to policy, providing a new avenue for how scholarship can interpret and critique foundations and their influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public health is about policy, power, and the public and as such might be thought necessarily political. That does not mean, however, that the place of political analysis and engagement in public health is uncontroversial, and there have been longstanding arguments that to discuss politics sullies the scientific nature of public health. This article, introducing a special issue on political science in public health, argues that rigorous use of middle-range theory can inform our analysis of public health problems and avoid the risks of politicization, excessive abstraction or excessive concreteness. It summarizes key political science concepts discussed in the papers: epistemic communities, interest groups, advocacy coalitions, political parties, institutions, legalism, discourse and the political economy of labour. We hope that the series will provide the public health community with some tools and methods for how to integrate public health knowledge into the sphere of decision making in an appropriate way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The relationship between HIV and poverty is complex and recent studies reveal an urban--rural divide that is not well understood. This paper examines the urban--rural disparity in the relationship between poverty and HIV infection in Kenya, with particular reference to possible explanations relating to social cohesion/capital and other moderating factors. Methods Multilevel logistic regression models are applied to nationally-representative samples of 13 094 men and women of reproductive age from recent Kenya Demographic and Health Surveys. Results The results confirm a disproportionate higher risk of HIV infection among the urban poor, despite a general negative association between poverty and HIV infection among rural residents. Estimates of intra-community correlations suggest lower social cohesion in urban than rural communities. This, combined with marked socio-economic inequalities in urban areas is likely to result in the urban poor being particularly vulnerable. The results further reveal interesting cultural variations and trends. In particular, recent declines in HIV prevalence among urban residents in Kenya have been predominantly confined to those of higher socio-economic status. Conclusion With current rapid urbanization patterns and increasing urban poverty, these trends have important implications for the future of the HIV epidemic in Kenya and similar settings across the sub-Saharan Africa region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a critique of a European Sociological Review paper by Bonke and Esping-Andersen on determinants of parental investment in childcare. The critique demonstrates that the data the authors cite do not provide evidence for the conclusions they draw. This is largely because the authors misread interaction effects, but also because they disattend to substantively simpler but formally equivalent accounts of their variables. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper argues that Vergangenheit und Zukunft der Sozialwissenschaften (The Past and Future of the Social Sciences), a contribution not always well understood in the literature, is important to an understanding of Schumpeter's concept of development as applied to the field of the social sciences. To this end, it addresses three key questions. First, can the book be taken as a starting point to reconstruct a Schumpeterian theory of scientific development? Second, is Vergangenheit und Zukunft merely 'a brief outline of what first became the Epochen [ der Dogmen- und Methodengeschichte ] and finally the History of Economic Analysis ', as Elizabeth Boody Schumpeter wrote in her Editor's Introduction (July 1952) to the latter work (p. XXXII), or should it be read as a complement to Epochen and perhaps the History ? Third, is the eminent Japanese scholar Shionoya right to claim that Schumpeter's work pursued the ambitious goal of developing a 'comprehensive sociology'? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper challenges proceduralized, rule-bound approaches to ethics and considers how social workers and teams can develop an attitude of compassionate concern and become more effective in dealing with ethical problems in their day-to-day practice. It introduces the work of Humberto Maturana, a widely respected theorist, whose work has received little attention in social work. The paper argues that Maturana's biology of cognition provides an approach to ethics that takes into account the spontaneous nature of everyday work in which social workers undertake their ethical actions. It stresses the importance of emotions, particularly love, and considers the way in which ethical action is shaped by culture. It emphasizes the importance of engaging in reflection on professional practices and team, professional and organizational culture in order for social workers to improve their awareness of ethical dilemmas and promote ethical practice. For those teaching ethics, this paper suggests an alternative to the rational consideration of moral dilemmas and proposes approaches to training that can help social workers become more attuned and responsive to ethical conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of discourses about participation on child protection practice. The paper critiques the prevalent conceptualizations of participation on the grounds that, often, these ideals have been imported from other disciplines without due regard for the specificities of child protection practice. Initially, the critique is focused on how participatory discourses have resisted adaption to the child protection field. For example, participation and paternalism are often paired dualistically, with the consequence that participation is seen as an unquestionable good, whilst practices that do not conform to this ideal are associated with patemalism and considered to be antithetical to just child protection practice. By examining some of the typical responses, within the child protection literature and amongst child protection professionals, to the prevalent discourses about participation it is argued that these discourses have actually thwarted the development of participatory processes in child protection work. This is because these discourses do not engage with the expectations associated with child protection work, particularly the use of statutory power that such practice demands. The final part of the paper identifies how post-structural theory, particularly the work of Foucault, can highlight and dismantle some of the assumptions about power on which participatory models have rested and allow for the development of a participatory ethos which is receptive to the specificities of child protection work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we respond to the critiques of our work undertaken under the auspices of the CASMIN project that are presented by Hout and Hauser and by Sørensen in preceding papers in this number, We treat in turn issues concerning data comparability and the class schema that we use as the basis for our analyses of mobility; our model of `core social fluidity'; and empirical results relevant to the evaluation of the FJH-hypothesis. In conclusion we point to certain conceptual presuppositions and related research interests which we would see as deeply rooted in the American tradition of work in the field of social stratification and mobility and which, we suggest, throw light on the nature of the reaction that our work has provoked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper three logit models of school continuation are presented. The Italian school system was divided into three separate school transitions: from primary education to lower secondary school, from lower to higher secondary school, and from higher secondary education to university. Data derive from the Italian Social Mobility Survey, carried out in 1985 on a sample of over 5,000 people, both male and female, employed and unemployed. They are used in this paper for a cohort analysis of trends over time of educational inequalities due to social origin and sex. The main conclusion of this study is that, apart from minor changes in the rapidly contracting sector of agriculture, there is no consistent sign of reduction of educational inequalities by social origin in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the hypothesized inverse relationship between socioeconomic status and conservatism on a wide range of so-called social issues. This relationship is important in itself as well as in some theories that link political dealignment to features of postindustrial society. We examine this relationship by looking at the net effects of education, occupation, income, and class (owner, supervisor, or worker) on nine issues. Our results suggest that the hypothesized relationship is absent for most dimensions of socioeconomic status and most social issues. The most consistent exception to this is that liberalism on social issues tends to increase with education, but even here the relationship varies considerably from issue to issue. The lack of a consistent relationship reflects both the diversity of the social issues and the fuzziness of the social/economic distinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The articles included in the December 2004 issue of the journal "Sociology of Religion" are all based on papers given at the 2003 meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion in Atlanta, Georgia. Each of the article explores the increasing emphasis on culture in sociology as a whole and more specially in the sociology of religion. Also, the papers also deal with new ideas and approaches. In this issue, the different trajectories within the sociology of religion is demonstrated. These are not random differences, but can be mapped in relation to institutional, philosophical and linguistic constraints within the same profession.

The article focuses on the impact the paper "The Missing Feminist Revolution in Sociology," written by Judith Stacey and Barrie Thorne in 1985, had on the study and teaching of sociology. The paper argued that sociology, in contrast to other social sciences, had warded off attempts by feminist scholars to transform the field's theoretical and conceptual frameworks. A discussion of a study of the paper, which took place at the 2005 meeting of the American Sociological Association is presented.

In the last decade, a new sociology of childhood has made important contributions to our understanding of children as social agents shaping their daily lives in various contexts and situations. Although social difference and diverse childhood experiences hold a central place in these new paradigms, several researchers have noted the neglect of blacks children in mainstream research agendas, with little attention paid to their lived experiences in social institutions. This conceptual paper begins with a brief discussion exploring the intersections between black children, marginalization and childhood studies. The following section reviews ongoing concerns implicated in the high presence of black children in public care. By applying theories about childhood to children in public care generally and specifically to black children, this paper advocates participatory approaches to incorporate new initiatives in working with black children in public care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successive legislation has underscored the importance of assessments that are sensitive to the needs of carers and take into account their ability and willingness to continue caring. This paper synthesizes qualitative and quantitative findings from a continuing programme of carer-related research that began in 1993 and has continued in parallel with legislative changes. It considers the process and characteristics of carer assessment from the perspectives of carers for individuals with a range of health and social care needs, and practitioners. This paper explores the assessment of carer need over time and highlights the considerable and enduring gap between policy and practice. It considers practitioners' reluctance to offer separate carer assessments, identifies confusion relating to the interpretation of eligibility criteria and documents the limited contribution of health service staff. The need for an evidence-based frame-work for good practice, that distinguishes between carer needs, service provision and carer outcomes, is highlighted. The paper concludes by identifying key changes that are necessary to promote future good practice, such as staff training and information strategies and the need for practitioners to engage with carers as partners in the care process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper models interactions between a party with anticipatory emotions and a party who responds strategically to those emotions, a situation that is common in many health, political, employment, and personal settings. An "agent" has information with both decision-making value and emotional implications for an uninformed "principal" whose utility she wants to maximize. If she cannot directly reveal her information, to increase the principal's anticipatory utility she distorts instrumental decisions toward the action associated with good news. But because anticipatory utility derives from beliefs about instrumental outcomes, undistorted actions would yield higher ex ante total and anticipatory utility. If the agent can certifiably convey her information, she does so for good news, but unless this leads the principal to make a very costly mistake, to shelter his feelings she pretends to be uninformed when the news is bad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do those who can participate in more inclusive congregations instead choose to turn to those that draw strong ethnic boundaries? This article addresses this question through a little studied but growing phenomenon — Asian American college students' participation in separate ethnic evangelical organizations. Using data gathered from field research in a variety of ethnically diverse campus ministries, this paper examines why second-generation Korean Americans who can participate in pan-ethnic, multiracial, or predominately white campus ministries instead participate in separate ethnic campus ministries. In so doing, it contributes to the emerging literature on the religious participation of the children of today's post-1965 immigrants; it addresses the largely unformed debate regarding the prevalence of racialization versus ethnicization explanations for ethnic religious group formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the key normative issues raised by empirical research into social mobility and meritocracy. Typically, sociologists working in this area are motivated by a concern with matters of social justice and equality of opportunity, but that concern tends to be rather vague and diffuse, which makes it difficult to assess the normative relevance of their findings. Surveying, in an accessible manner, five issues familiar to political philosophers that clarify the significance of sociologists' results, this paper explains why a regime of `perfect mobility' is not an appropriate benchmark for evaluating the extent to which a society offers its members social justice or equality of opportunity. Some of the mechanisms that produce an association between the social position of parents and children are unobjectionable and would exist even in an altogether just society. Sociologists do not endorse perfect mobility. But neither are they clear about the variety, and normative significance, of the various mechanisms that tend to generate inequalities in mobility chances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study deals with the independent religious communities that began their activity with the liberal reforms and antireligious policy of Nikita Khrushchev. The paper confines itself to the near- Orthodox independent religious communities that existed in Leningrad from the 1960s to the 1970s. A specific characteristic of those communities was their doseness to various lands of Russian nationalistic groups and to the dissent movement. Through an analysis of interviews with former participants in the religious communities, auto-biographical texts and various documents, an attempt is made to reconstruct the significance of individual religious searches by the young intellectuals of Leningrad who took part in the religious communities, and their values and ideology during the 1960s and '70s. Criticism and disillusionment with communism preceded conversion of these soviet intellectuals to Orthodoxy. The specific context of atheistic government resulted not only in a particular combination of the elements of restored religious tradition, but also in special techniques of validation of their religious faith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines causality in social science in the context of the question whether children are adversely affected in the long term by parental divorce. The paper identifies first what precise question is at issue. The data and methodology required to examine the question are specified. Studies approaching these requirements are examined and it is found that the largely causal conclusions drawn are not justified. The finding of the paper is, rather, that the evidence is insufficient to allow the inference that divorce causes long-term adverse effects to the children. More than this, it appears that the sociological and demographic literature has not, by and large, addressed seriously the difficulties of establishing causal effects in this area. Correlational data are routinely interpreted as causal in other areas of social science also. Causal interpretation is a source of difficulty in general in the social sciences and increasingly this is being recognized and discussed. Some reasons for the difficulties involved are suggested and some interim pragmatic approaches to resolving them are proposed.

The paper analyses occupational matching as a process of status allocation and a mechanism which maintains or changes the structure of social stratification. By examining the occupational matching process in two political regimes (East and West Germany between 1945 and 1989), we address the following question: is occupational matching based on educational credentials a general allocation mechanism in all meritocratic societies, irrespective of their ideological goals? The empirical analyses are based on the German Life History Study conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. The male and female respondents belong to four birth cohorts (1929-31, 1939-41, 1949-51/1951-53, and 1959-61). The descriptive analyses and logistic regressions presented in the paper reveal astonishing similarities, but also remarkable differences between the two regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of studies related to social work, sociology and social policy. They include "Explaining Health Inequalities: Beyond Black and Barker," "Death in the News: The Public Investigation of Private Emotion," and "Rethinking Childhood Dependency: Children's Contributions to the Domestic Economy."

Social work education is subject to further changes partly in response to media and governmental scrutiny and pressure, with particular criticism being levelled at anti-racist social work theory and practice. This paper questions whether this is due only to the dominance of a particular ideology in Britain, or if it is also a consequence of the failure of social work education to adequately address the complexity of the issues involved. The authors suggest that much of the anti-racist social work literature is theoretically inadequate, being informed by neither sociological, political nor economic theory or research on racism in Britain. This has made it vulnerable in a climate which is hostile to struggles for racial and other forms of social equality. The authors conclude that a radical, yet realistic, way forward is to move away from the current narrow focus on anti-racism to a broader anti-oppressive framework. This recognizes the need to continue the fight against racial, alongside class, gender and other forms of oppression, whilst setting achievable objectives within the social work process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a set of seven tables that show the intergenerational social mobility of Norwegian men with respect to trends in relative mobility. The seven tables are constructed from the Norwegian Election Studies, a unique set of data covering a time-span of more than 30 years from 1957 to 1989. These tables are analysed by means of log-multiplicative and log-linear models in which relative social mobility is represented by parameters for class-specific immobility and scaled association. The model selection process ends with slight preference for the best trend model over a model of stability in relative mobility. The former model displays stable immobility parameters, and shows a linear downward trend in the scaled association since 1965, with a deviant low value for 1957, whereas in the stability model, both the immobility and the scaled association parameters are stable in the time-period covered by the study. The observed trend in the scaled association parameters could also be seen as a part of a cyclical pattern, which may result if the scaled association should increase in the future. If the hypothesis of a trend towards greater openness is correct, it should be observed first among young people. Re-estimating the models for men 40 years or younger separately does suggest that the model with a negative linear trend comes out strengthened in terms of fit, but the scaled association parameters show more variation around the estimated trend line. In conclusion, the study indicates a tendency towards less rigidity in the class structure, captured by the negative trend in the scaled association since 1965. This tendency is not found for the immobility parameters, which seem to be quite stable over time. These conflicting results, together with the relatively good fit of a model of stability in social fluidity, may alternatively be interpreted as 'trendless fluctuations' in relative mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we employ Erikson and Goldthorpe's core model of social fluidity and a 'measured variable' approach to analyse trends in social mobility among men in the Republic of Ireland. Our analyses provide no evidence that the changes associated with industrialization have led to the increases in social fluidity predicted by the liberal theory of industrialism. The measured-variable approach we employ consistently provides a better fit to the Irish data than the core model. The application of the former model points to a degree of importance of the hierarchy dimension which is not captured adequately by the core model. It also suggests that the well-known distinctiveness of the Irish social mobility regime is open to explanation in terms of general dimensions rather than the peculiarities of the Irish case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the growth and significance of private policing, which has received considerable attention in North America and the UK but relatively little in the rest of Europe. The paper draws upon European sources to describe the implications of the privatization of policing for civil liberties and the expectations that citizenship carries regarding state provision of policing services, and for the development of a market in policing in the post-1993 European Union. It suggests that there is the potential for the emergence of a new 'policing complex' and considers how certain developments in sociological theory may illuminate aspects of this trend. It concludes by offering a future European research agenda on this topic and comments on the social policy implications of a mixed economy of policing that erodes the citizen's legitimate expectations of equality in protection from crime and incivilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the unemployment problem in Britain and in Spain. The risk of unemployment is greater in Spain and the social security system to support the unemployed less comprehensive than in the UK. The unemployed in both countries suffer lower psychological wellbeing than the employed in the same country, but there are surprising differences when comparisons are made between the British and Spanish unemployed. Attempts to fit the results into a general explanatory framework of relative deprivation theory fail. Differences between the two countries in the prevalence of a work ethic seem to be the most likely explanation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recently developed hierarchical age-period-cohort (HAPC) models, inferential questions arise: How can one assess or judge the significance of estimates of individual cohort and period effects in such models? And how does one assess the overall statistical significance of the cohort and/or the period effects? Beyond statistical significance is the question of substantive significance. This paper addresses these questions. In the context of empirical applications of linear and generalized linear mixed-model specifications of HAPC models using data on verbal test scores and voter turnout in U.S. presidential elections, respectively, we describe a two-step approach and a set of guidelines for assessing statistical significance. The guidelines include assessments of patterns of effects and statistical tests both for the effects of individual cohorts and time periods as well as for entire sets of cohorts and periods. The empirical applications show strong evidence that trends in verbal test scores are primarily cohort driven, while voter turnout is primarily a period phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the significance of new developments in the social studies of childhood for the social professions and social work. These evolving fields of knowledge present challenges to social work as they seek to reshape traditional accounts of children and integrate revised knowledge to inform practice and policy issues. The article begins by mapping the social studies of childhood and then considers the models of childhood that underpin professional knowledge and practice. The next section examines the ways in which aspects of these paradigms have entered policy and practice. This article considers how childhood studies might contribute to social work through the development of a more integrated and distinctive model of professional practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although there have been many critiques of the central role that trauma plays in social work practice with refugees, nevertheless, trauma discourse maintains a powerful shaping force on service delivery in Australia, intersecting with, and gaining power from, managerial discourses that specify individually focused approaches to practice. The outcome is a double bind for refugee populations, who quickly learn that, in this country, identifying themselves as vulnerable is a pathway to resources, yet, who then find themselves caught in processes that have precarious effects for agency. Trauma work, the paper argues, however necessary at some points, is overemphasised and over-legitimised, and a range of critiques are drawn on to substantiate this. Revisiting some of the traditional disciplinary bases of social work and human services may facilitate organisations and practitioners to engage more proactively and reflexively with people who arrive as refugees across a broader range of tasks associated with re-establishing themselves in a new country. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using the author's own experiences in local politics, the paper examines several cases in which pieces of mundane infrastructure are contested. The cases include eruvs, traffic-calming technologies, and invisible dog fences. The argument is that in contra distinction to abstract philosophical approaches to technology, the social construction of technology (SCOT) needs to return to the examination of the mundane embeddedness of technologies in everyday life. It is argued that an adequate approach to the role of the human and the non-human should not buy into a distinction between ontology and epistemology but instead should focus upon the contested interaction of humans and non-humans in everyday life and thereby restore the analysis of intentionality and meaning to its rightful place at the core of the sociology of technology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Foster care systems across Australia are widely recognised as being 'in crisis'. Problems of both supply (a lack of appropriate placements for children) and demand (increasing numbers of child protection notifications) are central to this crisis. Addressing these problems requires an approach to social work practice that encourages greater support for existing foster carers, and that in so doing, helps to attract new carers to the system. One of the ways in which this may be achieved is through an emphasis on foster care as a form of family based care that holds the potential to meet the needs not only of children, but of adults seeking to engage in familial relationships with children. Drawing upon a psychoanalytically-informed approach to social work, this paper presents and analyses data from a national research project examining existing Australian foster carers' experiences of care provision. The results demonstrate that despite considerable adversity (which often takes the shape of foster families not being recognised as such), foster carers continue to form unique, supportive families with children. Implications are drawn from this for a social work practice that acknowledges diversity in family forms and which validates the identifications and desires that circulate within foster families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information by Nancy Nason-Clark about the September 2004 issue of the journal "Sociology of Religion." September is the time of new beginnings, for students and faculty alike. Some of us make mental notes of things we wish to change, term papers graded more quickly, lectures more engaging, student problems understood more clearly, journals read from cover to cover, and so on. Themes of marginalization and private religious practices weave their way through the various articles presented in the journal. Two of the articles consider the interface of gender or race in contemporary evangelical discussions. Two other articles consider the impact of spiritual experiences: in the workplace or in the construction of privatized religion.

This section introduces the articles featured in the June 2004 issue of Social Forces. In the June issue, the editor Richard L. Simpson retires from his position as co-editor. Judith Blau will become editor on July 1, 2004. 2004 was a year of many changes at Social Forces. The editors are extremely sad to lose Paul Mihas as the Managing Editor at the end of June 2004, when the Journal moves completely to the Department of Sociology. The journal is well on its way to implementing electronic management of manuscripts and reviews, anticipating the full transition to online-submission capability sometime in Summer 2004. The first article in the issue is Patricia Yancey Martin's presidential address that she delivered at the 2003 meetings of the Southern Sociological Society: Gender as Social Institution. Following the peer-reviewed articles is a section that includes a paper by Michael Burawoy, Public Sociologies: Contradictions, Dilemmas and Possibilities, along with rejoinders by Francois Nielsen, David Brady, and Charles Tittle. Catherine Zimmer, President of the North Carolina Sociological Association (NCSA), introduces these four papers that are based on a session at the NCSA. Judith will continue to devote a short, bracketed section of each issue of Social Forces devoted to Commentary and Debate.

This paper addresses the devices by which we persuade in the discipline—to produce and reproduce representations of economies that focus on atomistic individuals, freedom of choice and closed systems. By means of these devices we erase from our perceptual field those characteristics of the economic realm that consider elements of the social nature of individuals, open system thinking, relationality and relative power, including the influence played by income and wealth distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In sociology, the appropriateness of national approaches for understanding social inequality in today's societies is being increasingly questioned, and EU-wide approaches are advocated instead. In this paper, we link the growing debate about national or EU- wide approaches to reference group theory, investigating whether comparisons with foreign countries influence levels of individual life satisfaction. Our results indicate that, on the one hand, more people can be assumed to have a national frame of reference than a broader international one; on the other hand, among those who do have an idea of how average people in other countries live, cross-border comparisons certainly influence people's satisfaction with life. Upward comparisons in particular are important: the more people feel personally deprived, relative to other countries, the less satisfied they are with their lives. In contrast, the feeling of relative gratification has a much smaller impact on life satisfaction, and often no impact at all. This leads us to conclude that EU-wide approaches to inequality do make sense, but that there is also no need to jettison national approaches completely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years questions about the coherence of Religious Studies have been raised, responses to which have important implications within both the politics of institutions and broader cultural politics. As specializations deepen, some fragmentation in the field of Religious Studies is inevitable and a welcome antidote to earlier universalising claims. But we need to overcome the inadequate choice of using either problematic general categories or a relativistic reversion to purely area-specific study which relegates the study of ‘religions’ to departments of anthropology, sociology, or other splintered fields, and excludes theologies of traditions from the secular academy. This paper argues for Religious Studies not only as the social scientific study of religion but as an arena that gives hospitality to traditions' self-inquiry within a framework of rational discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1960s, one of the great strengths of social history has been its willingness to respond to contemporary concerns. However, as environmental issues have pushed their way to the top of the global political agenda, social historians have been slow to meet this new challenge. This paper examines reasons for this reluctance and, more importantly, explores the opportunities for integrating social and environmental history. It is divided into three main parts. The first section deals with the failure of social history to strike up a dialogue with environmental history. Section two aims to show that social and environmental history are basically compatible and complementary fields, and argues for increased collaboration by making human-environment relations a key theme for future research. Drawing on studies—both rural and urban—that have begun to establish common ground between the two fields, section three outlines new areas for investigation, including: the interconnections between social inequality and environmental degradation; environments and identities; and consumption and the environment. By focusing attention on how ordinary people interacted with their environments in the past, social historians could make a significant contribution to current discussions about a sustainable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the key issues that need to be addressed in seeking to enhance the appeal of social history to undergraduates. Consideration is given to content selection; enhancing cognitive skills; learning and teaching approaches; and assessment techniques. Additionally, in relation to each of these matters, the notion of progression is examined, which in this context is concerned with how the study of social history can be made more challenging for students as they proceed through their programmes of study. The argument is made that, for social history to prosper at undergraduate level, careful account will have to be taken of students' needs, especially in terms of their employability, and meaningful ways found of reflecting these needs both in the way the curriculum is designed and in the learning and teaching approaches that are adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I trace the development of statistical significance testing standards in sociology by analyzing data from articles published in two prestigious sociology journals between 1935 and 2000. I focus on the role of two key elements in the diffusion literature, contagion and rationality, as well as the role of institutional factors. I find that statistical significance testing flourished in the 20th century. Contagion processes and the suitability of significance testing given a study's data characteristics encourage the diffusion of significance testing, whereas institutional factors such as department prestige and particular editorships help explain growing popularity of the .05 alpha level and use of the "three-star system" of symbolic codes (i.e., *p < = .05, **p < = .01, ***p < = .001). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the concept of convention in the social sciences. It presents the two major neo-Humean philosophical approaches to convention and challenges their intuitive appeal and research implications. The weaknesses of these approaches are examined and a new direction is suggested for the study of convention. The paper goes onto develop a framework for the analysis of conventions, using the notion of `the exemplar' introduced by Thomas Kuhn. An illustration of this alternative approach is provided using the example of the `wage relation'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses trends in social work in the last twenty-five years. Within the broad theme of social work as a social institution, more detailed attention is focused on: services for children and elderly people; manageralism; and social work research and evaluation. Processes of secularization, professionalism and manageralism have weakened the impetus for social reform. This has sharpened dilemmas for social work in balancing benefits for service users and public involvement with tight state control and regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe and explain country differences in the effect of gender on the risk of becoming poor, using data from the Luxembourg Income Study on 22 industrialized countries. Although in most countries women are more likely to become poor than men, this is not the case for all countries. Composition effects explain 18 per cent of the country differences: differences in the educational level of the population are most important, whereas labor market participation plays a smaller role. Country characteristics, especially economic growth and social-democratic tradition, explain between 29 and 36 per cent of the country differences in the gender-poverty-gap. Both composition effects and country characteristics are better suited to explaining the disadvantages of women than the disadvantages of men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper formalizes a widely discussed peer effect titled "acting White." "Acting White" is modeled as a two-audience signaling quandary: signals that induce high wages can be signals that induce peer group rejection. Without peer effects, equilibria involve all ability types choosing different levels of education. "Acting White" alters the equilibrium dramatically: the (possibly empty) set of lowest ability individuals and the set of highest ability individuals continue to reveal their type through investments in education; ability types in the middle interval pool on a common education level. Only those in the lower intervals are accepted by the group. The model's predictions fit many stylized facts in the anthropology and sociology literatures regarding social interactions among minority group members. "Some African-American students, unable to extricate themselves from the quicksand of self-defeat, have adopted the incredibly stupid tactic of harassing fellow blacks who have the temerity to take their studies seriously. According to the poisonous logic of the harassers, any attempt at acquiring knowledge is a form of "acting white" [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is there a difference between the social capital developed in faith-based and secular poverty-to-work programs? Comparative field research investigating five faith-based and secular poverty-to-work programs in southeastern America finds that values expressed by a secular non-profit organization and two faith-based programs correspond with more activities that develop social capital than the programs run by a for-profit organization and a reinvented government agency. In all the programs this social capital is both 'bridging,' by crossing barriers of race, gender, and class, and 'bonding' by tying participants and staff into at least a temporary supportive community. The programs see that this social capital is effective in supporting low-income persons through the transition to full-time employment. In addition, the faith-based programs seek to extend the social capital by developing long-term ties between clients and local religious congregations. This paper also specifies how social capital is developed in these programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In some forms of sociology, "culture" has come to replace "society" as the central object of study. This has encouraged an epistemological relativism that overrides a proper engagement with human ontology, while it has also allowed for the development of forms of reductionism where culture turns out to be determined by something deemed more fundamental, such as technology. Some influential contemporary accounts of the "information age" exhibit both these characteristics. The argument of this paper is that these do not offer a productive route forward for sociology in general, or for sociologists of religion in particular. It is argued that Durkheim's social realism not only helps to illuminate the inadequacy of those theories that ignore the human and religious dimensions of contemporary life in their intoxication with machine-mediated flows of information, but can also point towards a more productive way forward for the analysis of contemporary social and cultural realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The dehumanizing aspects of conflict and war are increasingly recognized as serious health and human rights concerns. This paper examines the impact on civilians of the 29 March 2002 Israeli Army invasion and subsequent curfews lasting up to 45 consecutive days, of five West Bank towns. Methods: Using focus groups, a 10-item scale was devised to measure the effects of the invasion's impact on the social and health-related quality of life. The scale is an aggregate of three constructs measuring housing, financial, and health-related issues. A survey composed of demographic questions and the 10-item social/health scale was administered to a stratified random sample of inhabitants of the five towns. Results: the invasion caused extensive destruction, food and cash shortages, internal displacement of civilians, psychological distress, and serious interruptions of basic services, including crucial health services. Overall, Jenin experienced the most deleterious effects. Using the subscales, Jenin experienced the highest overall housing damage, Bethlehem the most financial difficulties, and Ramallah the most health-related hardships. Conclusions: civilians inevitably suffer during conflict and war from destruction of the community infrastructure and from personal stress due to disruption of services and the non-fulfilment of basic human needs. In contradistinction to standard damage assessments that focus on collective physical damage, this scale provides richer information on the needs of civilians in conflict-torn areas, and can assist aid workers in the efficient deployment of resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dramatic religious growth has occurred throughout the former Soviet Union in the past 30 years with approximately 100 million people joining religious groups for the first time. These religious revivals correspond to lessening restrictions on religious activity — a dear prediction of the ’religious-economies’ or ’supply-side’ approach to the study of religion. Nevertheless, a comparative analysis of past-communist countries reveals that levels of religious pluralism are not commensurate to levels 4 religious growth, a finding which seemingly contradicts a central proposition in the supply-side approach. This paper argues that a religious-economies explanation of post-communist religious growth remains untarnished when one considers the impact of Soviet atheism on religious markets and the role of religious regulation in the post-communist era. These two factors have created an instance where religious monopolies are able to grow at unprecedented rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious life has long been global. Contemporary migrants extend these ties by transnationalizing everyday religious life. While much has been written about transnational economic and political practices, transnational religious life is not well understood. This paper examines the institutional characteristics of transnational religiosity and has three broad goals. First, it reviews this emerging body of literature and proposes an approach to the study of transnational migrants' religious practices. Second, it proposes three types of extended, negotiated, and recreated transnational religious organizations. Finally, it begins to untangle the relationship between transnational religion and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The religious question of men's origin and destination can be answered by belief, unbelief, uncertainty and indifference. The degree of secularization should increase belief against the three remaining options, unbelief against uncertainty and indifference, and uncertainty against indifference. The paper asks if the enforced form of secularization of East European countries has the same effects even if the degree of secularization is controlled, and if these developments are reversed after the demise of communism Furthermore, it examines if the developments of countries and their reversal remain significant if the education, the age and the religious practice of individuals are controlled. Dependent variables are the belief in God and the Bible as surveyed in the ISSP 1991 and 1998. In 1991, the degree and the form of secularization affect the answers to the religious question as expected. Up to 1998, the effects of the degree and the form of secularization persist. Furthermore the effects of the degree and the form of secularization do not shrink if education and age of individuals are controlled, and do shrink but remain significant if additionally religious practice is controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]