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This paper examines social‐psychological factors that can facilitate and hinder public support for conservative agendas over time. Using four waves of longitudinal panel data from Chile (N = 2,394), we estimated the between‐person and within‐person associations among individuals' self‐reported conservative ideologies, political disaffection, civic behaviour, political attitudes towards democracy and social change, and their support for conservative (vs progressive) social movements over time. As expected, between‐person increases in social dominance orientation (SDO), right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA), right‐wing self‐categorization, and political disaffection correlated positively with support for conservative social movements. Between‐person increases in people's social change beliefs, support for democracy, and civic participation predicted less support for conservative social movements over time. Within‐person increases in RWA and SDO correlated positively with conservative social movement support, whereas civic participation correlated negatively with it. Results provide novel evidence for the dynamic processes underlying support for conservative/progressive agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introduction to the special section on rapid societal change, we highlight the challenges posed by rapid societal changes for social psychology and introduce the seven papers brought together in this special section. Rapid societal changes are qualitative transformations within a society that alter the prevailing societal state. Recent such changes include the election of right‐wing populist governments, the Arab Spring revolutions, and devastating civil wars in the Middle East. Conceptually, such events require consideration of how societal‐level events relate to more proximal psychological processes to bring about the often abrupt, non‐linear (as opposed to incremental and linear) nature of rapid societal change. They also require empirical approaches that allow such qualitative transformations to be captured and studied. This is true both in terms of directly addressing rapidly unfolding societal events in research, and in terms of how rapid, discontinuous change can be analysed. The papers in the special section help to address these issues through introducing novel theoretical and methodological approaches to studying rapid societal change, offering multiple perspectives on how macro‐level changes can both create, and be created by, micro‐level social psychological phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the role of the Modified Social Benches, a series of urban artworks, as platforms for bodily engagement and social encounters in open, outdoor urban spaces. Special attention is given to a couple of salient aspects involving both the design of the artworks and their social appropriation: (a) the different levels of sensory and kinesthetic engagement afforded by the benches, and (b) how these material qualities reflect in the urban space around the benches, lending the artworks a notorious social character. The social and the bodily dimensions are presented as intertwined characteristics of the Modified Social Benches. In order to explore these relationships, the paper highlights a set of key concepts, such as social encounters and affordances, as well as the notions of performance and engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Journal of Community Psychology" is publishing a special issue exploring the intersection of spirituality and religion with community research and action. As was discussed in several symposia at the 1997 Biennial Conference of the Society for Community Research and Action, spirituality and religion are elements of human experience which have received relatively limited consideration in psychological literature generally, and in community psychology specifically. Sociologist Seymour Sarason and others have noted that this "blind spot" is surprising given the large number of people for whom a sense of spirituality is important, the significant numbers of people who participate in religious settings on a regular basis, and the work of many religious movements for social change. The special issue is an effort to: initiate conventions and definitions for including these perspectives within the discourse of community psychology, and to document and establish the value of incorporating considerations of religion and spirituality into work.

Psychology, as a diverse social practice, must take a stance regarding the colonial world-system that legitimises the hegemonic production of knowledge. Decolonising community psychology requires the transformation of its practices to face cultural and institutional systems that reproduce inequality in colonial contexts as well as the validating of indigenous knowledge. Reflecting on an intervention in response to the devastation of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, this paper highlights the importance of a community psychological practice that promotes the search for self-determination and autonomous organising or autogestión. Following the notion that community psychologists should be social change agents whose professional activity constitutes a political act, our proposal is to stress decoloniality as a pedagogical practice, incorporating its principles to everyday interactions with diverse people, groups, organisations and communities. Self-determination refers to the ability for people, groups, neighbourhoods and communities to recognise the demands of their contexts and respond in ways that potentiate control over their own lives simultaneously with the search and action for collective well-being. Autonomous organising aims at individual and collective empowerment, to demand from official institutions and agents what their rights are, when they need it, by organising contestant responses to the systematic injustices and the abandonment of colonial instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we approach Feminism & Psychology 's 30th anniversary, we reflect on and explore what makes the journal distinctive – its emphasis on critical feminist psychology. In this article and the accompanying Virtual Special Issue, we outline five methodological considerations that we believe are at the heart of critical feminist scholarship: 1) the politics of asking questions; 2) attention to language/discourse; 3) reflexivity; 4) representation and intersectionality; and 5) mobilizing research for social change. We then draw across a set of 15 articles published in the archives of Feminism & Psychology that showcase one or more of these key features and demonstrate the 'doing' of critical feminist psychology. These articles are housed on the journal's website, as is an additional paper developed for students or those in a position of learning, which explores central ideas and debates that have culminated in critical feminist psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual harassment has received unprecedented attention in recent years. Within academia, it has a particularly reflexive relationship with the human sciences in which sexual harassment can be both an object of research and a problematic behavior amongst those engaged in that research. This paper offers a partial history in which these two are brought together as a common object of social psychology's culture of sexual harassment. Here we follow Haraway in using culture to capture the sense-making that psychologists do through and to the side of their formal knowledge production practices. Our history is multi-sited and draws together (1) the use of sexual harassment as an experimental technique, (2) feminist activism and research which made sexual harassment an object of knowledge in social psychology, and (3) oral history accounts of sexual harassment amongst social psychologists. By reading these contexts against each other, we provide a thick description of how sexual harassment initiates women and men into cultures of control in experimental social psychology and highlight the ethical-epistemological dilemma inherent in disciplinary practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While injustice is widespread, collective action against it appears to be rare. This paper argues that this may be because research often focuses on a narrow range of outgroup‐oriented actions, such as demonstrating, signing petitions, that are symbolic of a collective response to injustice. The present work takes a bottom‐up approach to study a broad range of collective and individual actions that people undertake in response to collective injustice. Participants indicated actions they felt they could take (Study 1) and, via interviews, actually had taken (Study 2) in response to human‐induced earthquakes. These studies revealed a broad range of actions, many of which are collective but ingroup‐ (e.g., helping ingroup members) rather than outgroup‐oriented. Study 3 further conceptualized these collective and individual actions by including quantitative measures thereof in an assessment of responses to stressful life events that were collective or individual. Results revealed that, while traditional forms of collective action are rare, ingroup‐oriented and individual level (e.g., social support) responses form distinct dimensions in response to both individual and collective events. This work extends our understanding of responses to collective injustice and suggests the need to broaden the scope of collective action research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines some of the main processes in the evolution of triangulation in qualitative research (QR) and social representations theory (SRT) in social psychology in recent decades. By adopting a cross-historical approach, we seek to outline how SRT can strengthen its epistemological approach by embracing triangulation, and to highlight that an examination of past and current debates on SRT can provide relevant insights for QR in psychology. We show how, progressively over time, in both fields (SRT and QR), discrepancies between data obtained by different methods were no longer considered a threat to scientific validity of the data but as a way to deepen understanding of the phenomenon being studied. Thus, developing systematic triangulation, which combines the various epistemological, theoretical, and methodological backgrounds of different methods (data collection and/or analysis), enables SRT to fulfill its potential even more in contributing to a societal social psychology. Reciprocally, SRT provides a framework in which QR can develop some of its full potential, for example, in the areas of multi-method studies, multidisciplinarity, and engagement with social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since first being proposed 25 years ago, system justification theory has become a paradigm‐shifting framework for understanding intergroup relations and political psychology. Based on the thesis that people are motivated to defend and bolster the societal status quo, system justification theory helps to explain varied phenomena, including resistance to change, outgroup favouritism, and other instances of false consciousness. This paper summarizes four tenets of the theory including the following: (1) antecedents to system justification, (2) palliative effects of system justification, (3) status‐based asymmetries in conflict between justification motives, and (4) societal consequences of system justification. Throughout our review, we highlight how system justification theory helps to explain why disadvantaged groups might sometimes support the status quo, emphasizing research conducted outside the United States when possible. We conclude by calling on future research to (1) further utilize nationally representative and multi‐level data, (2) investigate the relational motives behind system justification, (3) address social change from a system justification perspective, and (4) extend system justification theory's focus beyond WEIRD societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an attempt to apply a modern social psychology thesis to reproduce a linguistic image of non-Christian Jews in chosen narratives taken from the Greek canonical Gospels of the New Testament. In the first century AD, non-Christian Jews and primitive Christians found themselves in a state of growing ideological conflict resulting in marked changes in their social relations and mutual perceptions. While remaining in close connection with the usage of language and discourse creation, these changes led to the adoption of new linguistic strategies among primitive Christians, thanks to which the image of non-Christian Jews took on over the course of the following years characteristics of negative stereotypes. A structural model has been used to analyse Christian texts, allowing for consistent and uniform comparisons of available sources. The aim of this paper therefore is an attempt to recreate linguistic characteristics of Jews in primitive Christian documents. There is also an alternative proposal for the analysis of stereotypes against that which has been used for many years in the study of anti-Judaism in historical documents. I will present the theoretical context (a short historical outline) and accepted psychological theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of social representations (TSR) and discursive psychology (DP) originated as different social psychological approaches and have at times been presented as incompatible. However, along the years convergence has also been acknowledged, and, lately, most of all, practised. With this paper, we discuss how versions of TSR focusing on self–other relations for examining cultural meaning systems in/through communication, and versions of DP focusing on discourse at cultural, ideological, and interactional levels, can come together. The goal is to help forge a stronger social–psychological exploration of how meaning is constructed and transformed in and through language, discourse, and communication, thus extending current understanding of social change. After presenting a theoretical proposal for integrating those versions of TSR and DP, we offer also an integrated analytical strategy. We suggest that together these proposals can, on one hand, help TSR systematize analyses of social change that are both more critical and better grounded in theorizations of language use, and, on the other, provide DP with analytical tools able to better examine both the relational contexts where the construction and transformation of meaning are performed and their effects on discourse. Finally, we give some illustrations of the use of this analytical strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to contribute to the normative debate concerning work enforcement in liberal democracies. In the late 1980s, OECD countries began to revert to the pre-welfarestate tradition of attributing unemployment to personal failure. The new welfare-to-work policies emphasised individual responsibility for securing employment. Stepping up job search requirements and sanctions for failure to meet them was presented as a public intervention that helps unemployed individuals return from dependency to autonomy. Jobseekers have been made to believe that success in obtaining employment depends on howdoggedly they search for work and how adaptable they become to employer needs. These presumptions are challenged in the paper. Contracts that jobseekers are forced to sign with providers of employment services curtail their autonomy not only to the extent that they cannot avoid unproductive activity tests imposed on them, but also froma lifetime perspective in caseswhere they are forced into inferior jobs. In job-short economies, employers are also certain to discriminate against disadvantaged jobseekers notwithstanding the intensity of their effort or openness to occupational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social psychological literature on social change has focused on how groups overcome oppression and inequality. In this paper, we investigate an alternative strategy that groups employ for social change—the emulation of successful outgroups. We propose that lower status group members will be likely to employ a learning strategy when they perceive the status relations as legitimate (i.e., fair system) and unstable (i.e., own position is improvable). In Study 1 (Romanian undergraduate students, N = 31), we manipulated status legitimacy, while in Study 2 (British undergraduate participants, N = 94), we manipulated legitimacy and stability orthogonally. Overall, when they perceived status hierarchies as legitimate and unstable, participants exhibited higher admiration for the higher status outgroup, higher support for learning-related help (e.g., transfer of know-how, training) from the outgroup and had the most positive attitudes toward intergroup help. We propose that social change sometimes occurs gradually, through help and learning from successful models, and this paper offers insight into such gradual social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s, psychologists around the world have questioned the 'social relevance' of psychology in their societies. Curiously, the matter of 'social relevance' is under-theorized in the discipline, a state of affairs this paper attempts to correct. First, it describes how disagreements about psychology's cognitive interest - and subject matter - create an environment in which accusations of 'social irrelevance' can flourish. Second, it asserts that applied psychology's reliance on basic psychology for its scientific authority makes debates about 'social relevance' inevitable. And third, it claims that the discipline's longstanding antithesis to the social domain leaves it vulnerable to these debates - particularly in recent decades that have witnessed rapid social change. The paper reflects further on the rise of 'market relevance' in the global academy and its significance for psychology today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay introduces Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy's collection of papers on the social psychology of the 2012 election, framing it in terms of two prior collections. The papers are described as reflecting four themes: President or Barack Obama's path from outsider to incumbent, the nation's shift toward increasingly racialized politics, contemporary perceptions of 'Americanness,' and the role of moral values in political engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The construction of national identities through political discourse is a growing field of interest to social psychologists, particularly as many countries face changing demographics, borders and social realities as part of globalization, immigration and continued political integration and conflict. Through an analysis of 17 key speeches by Serbian politicians over the past 25 years, the present paper explores the question of how politicians, as entrepreneurs of identity, discursively manage the relationship between identity continuity and political change over time, in attempts to construct the future of a nation. We particularly explore this issue in the context of Serbia's present political aspirations toward joining the European Union. The findings indicate that (i) political change becomes negotiated within the framework of established and legitimized identity discourses that have developed over time, and (ii) while history is frequently drawn on to support political agendas, it is successful to the extent that this history offers a sense of cultural continuity rather than a coherent narrative of historical events and time periods. We conclude by arguing for the benefits that a diachronic approach to political discourse can offer social psychologists interested in the discursive construction of national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I argue that the study of crowds provides important lessons for social psychology in four key areas. First, it reveals the political influences which shaped and continue to shape the questions we ask and the answers we provide. Second, it demonstrates the importance of a methodological strategy which attends to real-world phenomena and the ability of theory to make sense of them. Third, it generates new theoretical insights and conceptual paradigms which have relevance to social psychology in general. Fourth, it provides new insights into the way that the social relations which constitute everyday social reality are created, consolidated, and changed. In sum, I suggest that the crowd is uniquely fertile ground in which to investigate the subject matter of social psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the conditions under which Discourse and social psychology, Common knowledge, and the author's Arguing and thinking were written. These books, which were independently conceived, were not specifically written as contributions to 'discursive psychology', for discursive psychology did not exist at that time. Their authors were rejecting conventional approaches to doing psychological research. The paper discusses what it takes for a new academic movement, such as discursive psychology, to be successfully established in the current climate of 'academic capitalism'. Two requirements are particularly mentioned: the necessity for a label and the necessity for adherents to be recruited. Of the three books, only Discourse and social psychology was outwardly recruiting its readers to a new way of doing social psychology. Arguing and thinking, with its celebration of ancient rhetoric, was much more ambiguous in its aims. It was turning away from present usefulness towards the past. By claiming to be 'an antiquarian psychologist' the author was rejecting disciplinary thinking. The paper also considers the intellectual costs of establishing a new specialism or sub-discipline. The 'first generation' may have freedom, but success can bring about a narrowing of perspectives and the development of orthodoxies for subsequent academic generations. This applies as much to the development of experimental social psychology as to discursive psychology. These processes are particular enhanced in the present socio-economic situation of contemporary universities, which make it more difficult for young academics to become, in the words of William James, 'undisciplinables'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Care for AIDS orphans in southern Africa is frequently characterized as a “crisis”, where kin-based networks of care are thought to be on the edge of collapse. Yet these care networks, though strained by AIDS, are still the primary mechanisms for orphan care, in large part because of the essential role grandmothers play in responding to the needs of orphans. Ongoing demographic shifts as a result of HIV/AIDS and an increasingly feminized labor market continue to disrupt and alter networks of care for orphans and vulnerable children. This paper examines the emergence of a small but growing number of male caregivers who are responding to the needs of the extended family. While these men are still few in number, the strength of gendered ideologies of female care means that this group of men is socially, if not statistically significant. Men continue to be considered caregivers of last resort, but their care will close a small but growing gap that threatens to undermine kin-based networks of care in Lesotho and across the region. The adaptation of gender roles reinforces the strength and resilience of kinship networks even when working against deeply entrenched ideas about gendered division of domestic labor. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: This paper presents the integration of art therapy in a decolonizing framework of practice used in a project called “Journey Women”. This framework of practice seeks to recognize and deconstruct the impacts of colonization and discrimination of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples and to empower and inform people in their healing journey. “Journey Women” was an art exhibit of large-scale “body-map” images depicting the healing experiences of eight Aboriginal women, created in a three-day arts-based workshop. The collaborative research project between Minwaashin Lodge and Concordia University aimed to gain an understanding of the conditions that contribute or challenge Aboriginal women in their process of healing from violence and the impacts of violence. This paper describes the process of creating body-maps that integrated an art therapy framework with traditional Aboriginal ceremonies of prayer, smudging, drumming, and singing as well as movement and grounding activities, poetry, and art creation. In this article, we discuss how a public exhibit of body-maps acted as a powerful medium of empowerment, a forum for women to be witnessed by the community, and a means for Aboriginal women to act as their own agents of social change and social justice. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

John Turner, whose pioneering work on social identity and self-categorization theories changed the face of modern social psychology, died in July 2011. This unique virtual special issue celebrates Turner's life and work by reproducing a number of key articles that were published in the British Journal of Social Psychology and the European Journal of Social Psychology over the course of his career. These articles are of three types: first, key position papers, on which Turner was the leading or sole author; second, papers that he published with collaborators (typically PhD students) that explored key theoretical propositions; third, short commentary papers, in which Turner engaged in debate around key issues within social psychology. Together, these papers map out a clear and compelling vision. This seeks to explain the distinctly social nature of the human mind by showing how all important forms of social behaviour - and in particular, the propensity for social influence and social change -are grounded in the sense of social identity that people derive from their group memberships. As we discuss in this editorial, Turner's great contribution was to formalize this understanding in terms of testable hypotheses and generative theory and then to work intensively but imaginatively with others to take this vision forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines changes in the level of institutional confdence in Australia between 1983 and 2005. The principal aim of the paper is to disaggregate the general trend in social trust and overall institutional confdence. Using data drawn from three waves of the World Values Survey undertaken in 1983, 1995 and 2005 we examine whether social trust and confdence have declined and the differing patterns of confdence for different birth cohorts in Australia. The results show a signifcant decrease in social trust and a large decline in confdence between 1983 and 1995. There was little change in confdence between 1995 and 2005, but social trust returned to the 1983 level over that period. A cohort analysis shows that the oldest cohort, those born before WWII, reported the largest decline in confdence, while by 2005 the baby boomers (or middle cohort born between 1944 and 1955) were the most confdent, with the oldest group reporting the least confdence. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s confdence has been at a much lower level than in the early 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the potential of the notions of reification and consensualization as developed by the theory of social representations as analytical tools for addressing the communication between the lay and scientific spheres. Social Representations Theory started by offering an over-sharp distinction between the reified and the consensual universes of which science and common sense, respectively, were presented as paradigmatic. This paper, however, suggests that the notions of consensual and reified can be considered as describing two distinct communicative formats: reification implying the use of arguments which establish prescriptions for representations and action, and consensualization relying on arguments which recognize the heterogeneity of representation and action. We illustrate this proposal through the analysis of a case in which the expert and the lay spheres of a Lisbon neighborhood opposed each other regarding the new laws of public participation in community matters. This analysis showed how reification and consensualization can be used as discursive formats by both spheres. The implications of the use of reification and consensualization and how they may depend on several power resources and have different impacts on social change are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special edition on ‘Understanding and Challenging Stigma’ seeks to further our understandings of the types of representations and practices through which stigma is perpetuated, the social contexts within which they are produced and reproduced, and the possibilities for agency, resistance and intervention. In this introductory piece, we outline three broad approaches to stigma in the existing literature—individual, macro-social and multi-level. Aligning ourselves with the latter, we discuss how social effects become sedimented in the individual psyche in ways that often make it difficult for stigmatised group members to resist their devalued social status. This insight frames our discussion of the papers in this volume—which cover various types of stigma, drawing on research in six countries. We focus on the ways in which the papers contribute to our understandings of (i) the material, political, institutional and symbolic contexts of stigma; (ii) the possibility of resistance to stigma; and (iii) the types of interventions most likely to facilitate such resistance. We conclude that the fields of social and community psychology have a central role to play in advancing the types of understandings that are so urgently needed to inform effective multi-level stigma-reduction interventions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's voices, roles, and contributions are the most misunderstood issues in the analysis of war zones and conflict areas. This paper brings the feminist lens into the analysis of Israeli policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It examines the effect and legacy of policies inflicted by the doctrines of ‘no safe haven’ and of ‘security reasoning’ in relation to women, explores the way it shapes women's interactions with their family members, and discusses the ways in which continued and unpredictable political oppression creates an art of resistance with therapeutic qualities. By using a collection of narratives, personal witnessing, and analyses of studies gathered since the onset of the second Intifada, the researcher reveals how women have managed to develop women-oriented strategies that protected the domestic space and produced innovative transcripts that created counter-spaces of safety to rebuild (actually or metaphorically) the family home. The paper concludes by showing how the processes of displacement and the attacks on the domestic sphere, nevertheless, engender agency and creative resistance and calls for front-line feminist activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of all the Chinese societies, Taiwan witnessed the first peaceful and democratic power transfer in 2000. With the coming to power of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), new political opportunity was opened up for environmentalists, who had been aligned with the DPP for more than a decade. Did the regime change provide a better milieu for synergy between environmental activists and state officials? Was a better style of environmental governance possible under the DPP government? These are the main questions this paper tries to raise and answer. A puzzle has been found here. While environmentalists have gained important access to policy decision-making, pro-development counter-mobilizations were also on the rise, and government policy shifted to a more pro-business stand consequently. This paper argues that this paradox resulted from the weakened state capacity, which simultaneously empowered environmentalists and could not resist business's lobbying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to analyse one of the social movements of twentieth century Kerala that tried to engage with the problems of material and spiritual progress in the context of modernity by investigating the rise of the Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha (hereafter PRDS). The movement originated within the framework of missionary Christianity, but moved beyond the limits of the missionary project and eventually offered a critique of it. The introductory part of the paper discusses the social and economic transformation of the erstwhile Travancore State during the colonial period, focusing on the transformation of the local caste structure. The problem of colonial modernity is then dealt with, as the issues analysed in the paper bear testimony to the transformation that modernity brought about. This is followed by discussions on the problems of caste, Christianity and the transformation of Dalit (formerly untouchable) communities in Travancore. Issues such as myths and histories of appropriation, notions of history and new bodily and physical practices, along with questions of identity formation, are taken up later on to delineate the trajectories of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines new cultural and political movements that have developed outside of traditional leftist politics since the early 1990s in Japan. The new movements, including Dame-ren, the Cardboard House Art movements in Shinjuku and recent anti-war protests on the Iraqi war, were mainly led by young people, in particular, the freeter generation, who did not experience the leftist politics of the 1960s. These movements are different from traditional Marxist political ones and even from the new social movements in the 1960s and 1970s in the sense that they incorporate more cultural practices such as art, music, dance and performance into their political activities. The paper also explores the historical background against which the new movements were born and have developed since the end of the Bubble economy. It sees freeters, young partetime workers, as emerging, new political actors that have appeared through the transition of a mode of production from Ford ism to post-Fordism. The transformation of society, economy and politics, known as `post-modernization' or recently as 'globalization', has asked us to re-consider and re-define the basic concepts such as class, proletariat, power, labour and work which we once shared. The paper tries to locate, through a critical examination, the new movements within a broader context of anti-neo-liberalism and anti-globalization and find political potentiality within it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dissemination, the second stage of Experimental Social Innovation and Dissemination (ESID) is a critical, if not defining, element of this social change model. This paper attempts to assess the extent to which community psychology has adopted and implemented ESID's dissemination focus in its training and publications. We identify four levels of commitment to dissemination: dissemination advocate, dissemination activist, dissemination researcher, and experimental dissemination researcher. Content analyses of textbooks, journal publications, and conference papers and a brief survey of doctoral training in the field were conducted. Findings suggest that the dissemination aspects of ESID have been modestly and partially implemented within the field. That is, although there is some evidence of a commitment to dissemination practice (advocate, activist), there is much less evidence of a commitment to dissemination research. The implications of these findings for the effectiveness of the ESID model and for training and practice in community psychology are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of civil society in environmental movements in the context of globalization. Exploring the various meanings of civil society, it argues that to understand civil society as a politically meaningful concept, due consideration should be given to social movements, which recharge civil society. At the same time, the efficacy of social movements rests on the vibrancy of civil society. In the present day world, civil society has become quite active in a large number of public interest issues of which environment has become quite central. This paper explores the conditions of the environmental movements as a truly global phenomenon and its role in the rise of a global civil society. The paper also reflects on the implication of the emergence of a global civil society for the protection of the environment. Drawing upon the cases of the Three Gorges Dam in China and the Narmada Dam in India the paper examines the role of an incipient global civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that current academic approaches to environmentalism in developing countries understate the role of class in either dominating political alliances, or in constructing underlying environmental discourse. The paper uses examples of various social movements in Thailand to illustrate the diverse ways in which environmental activism may represent or support different political objectives. It is proposed that analysts need to pay more attention to the origin of much environmental discourse from new, or identity-based social movements both within Thailand and elsewhere, and to seek ways to understand the 'co-production' of social activism and environmental knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between Self Advocacy and the disability movement in Britain in the light of social movement theory. Using the concept of 'collective identity' as it is explored in social movement theory, the analysis examines why the disability movement's promotion of a strong disabled identity may be difficult to achieve for all its constituents, particularly people with learning difficulties. Additionally the concept of symbolic production within social movement theory is used to explore how the movement uses the social model of disability as its 'collective action frame'. It is argued realignment of this frame is taking place within the movement and is reflected in debates within Disability Studies about the role of impairment. The voices of people with learning difficulties remain silent in this debate. The paper concludes by arguing for the recognition of social, psychological and cognitive difference as pre-requisite to an inclusive theory and politics of disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of globalisation has gained tremendous momentum over recent decades, resulting in unprecedented human interconnectedness and awareness of global concerns. The current special issue of the European Journal of Social Psychology brings together 10 papers that address this development. This special issue showcases different perspectives on the psychological processes that underlie the cognitive and behavioural responses to the global challenges humankind has created and is now facing. In introducing these contributions, we identified three emerging topics for social psychological theorising and application vis-à-vis globalisation and global concerns: (i) supranational identification and attachment, (ii) political and ideological responses to globalisation and global concerns, and (iii) global protest and change. We integrate these topics by highlighting some future prospects of this emerging field of research and its significance for understanding social change in these tumultuous times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing interest in how, when and where neighbourhoods affect individual behaviours and outcomes. In Britain, falling levels of owner-occupation and the growth of ethnic minority populations have sparked a debate about how neighbourhood characteristics and neighbourhood change intersect with the decision to move. In this paper we investigate how mobility preferences vary with neighbourhood characteristics and neighbourhood change. We use multilevel logistic regression models to test whether this is configured by personal attributes or attachment to one's neighbourhood and perceived similarity to one's neighbours. The results show that neighbourhood deprivation, changes in neighbourhood ethnic composition and changes in tenure mix are associated with preferring to move. Importantly, we show that a feeling of belonging to the neighbourhood or feeling similar to others in the neighbourhood significantly reduces the desire to move. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a small set of interlocking definitions, this paper presents a generally applicable conceptualization of social structure developed from recollections of Merton's late-1950s formulation. A brief review of the literature supports the view that the proposed conceptualization provides sociological researchers with a relatively simple and logically consistent overall framework, generally continuous with past theorizing, in which to place their own findings. The paper pays particular attention to how social structures are related causally and epistemologically to more micro-level psychological and more macrolevel sociocultural phenomena. Theoretical considerations and empirical evidence suggest a decrease in the likelihood and speed of change as we move from psychological- to social structural- to sociocultural-level phenomena. Although they require proof in each instance, these postulated differences in the relative speed with which psychological-, social structural-, and sociocultural-level phenomena tend to affect each other provide a new and potentially useful tool for unraveling the knotted causal connections among these different-level phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective behavior has been a long standing focal point of sociological interest. From its earliest use by Robert E. Park, the concept has been an expression of the sociologist's concern with various dramatic processes of social control, especially those manifesting rapid social change. While the work of specialists in collective behavior has emphasized the study of very specific and delimited events such as crowds, fashions, and fads, the subject matter of collective behavior has come to include the most crucial society-wide movements and upheavals. Moreover, empirical work in this field has reflected a sophisticated understanding of the difficulties of observing and recording complex aspects of social reality which envelop the observer and resist simplified coding and data-reduction techniques. By contrast, the theoretical relevance of the collective behavior framework has been problematic until recently and open to extensive debate. In fact, there was a period of time, after the initial contributions by Robert E. Park, in which the theoretical disputations about the nature of collective behavior appeared to divert creative energies. As a specialized orientation collective behavior became encapsulated and immune to the theoretical developments in other aspects of sociological thinking. In recent years, say the last five years, there has been a renewed interest in the collective behavior approach. The following papers by Neil Smelser and Ralph Turner, which provided the basis for an American Sociological Association panel, give expression to the search for a new balance between theory and empirical enterprise. These papers and the immediate discussion they provoked indicate that some sociologists are using the rubric to focus on crucial substantive issues of contemporary social change. In part, the dramatic events of the civil rights movement in the United States and the equally dramatic transformation of social structure in the new nations have contributed to this renaissance. In part, the response is defensive against the persistent criticism from outside disciplines concerning the excessive expenditure of intellectual energies on trivial processes of social control. What is important in any case is that collective behavior, although strictly sociological in its approach, supplies a link to the interests of political scientists and historians who have long been concerned with revolutions and mass movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The Negative Life Events Scale (NLES) has been included in nationally representative surveys of the Indigenous and Australian population since 2002 as a measure of exposure to a range of 'life stressors'. There has been limited reporting or analysis of estimates of the NLES from these surveys. This paper reports changes in exposure to stressors from 2002 to 2008 for the Indigenous population, and examines inter-relationships between eleven NLES items. Data for the 2006 Australian population is also included for comparative purposes. Methods Data from the 2002 and 2008 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Surveys (NATSISS) and the 2006 General Social Survey (GSS) were accessed from the Australia Bureau of Statistics in order to determine significant changes in exposure to stressors for the 2002 and 2008 Indigenous population by remoteness and to compare this with the 2006 Australian population. Factor analysis was used to assess the inter-relationships between stressors for the Indigenous and Australian population by remoteness. Results In remote locations, between 2002 and 2008, exposure to life stressors decreased significantly for the Indigenous population across seven of the eleven stressors. In non-remote locations, exposure to four of the stressors increased significantly. Exposure to stressors in the 2002 and 2008 non-remote Indigenous population were significantly higher than those for the 2006 Australian population for all items, except 'alcohol and/or drug problems' and 'trouble with the police', which showed no evidence of a difference. The factor analysis of the NLES for the 2002 and 2008 remote and non-remote Indigenous populations and the 2006 Australian population showed a consistent clustering of items into three groups: social transgressions; grief and trauma; and labour market stressors. Conclusions The reduction in exposure to life stressors for the remote Indigenous population may be related to policy and practice changes (e.g. more police, income quarantining, housing construction). The differential change in exposure to life stressors between remote and nonremote locations highlights the importance of presenting data for these geographic locations separately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of papers presented in the December 2009 issue of the "Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour," which include a paper on radical interactionism, a paper on social representations approach to the communication between different spheres and a paper on the theory of violence.

Through a case study of democratization movements in South Korea from 1980 to 1987, this study aims to contribute to further sophistication of social movement theories. Recognizing the limitation of the existing political opportunity approach, this paper presents a systematic definition of political opportunity structure and shows the mechanism through which it plays a role in the development of a social movement. In particular, in explaining South Korea's democratization movements, the authors distinguish political opportunity from its structure and suggest political opportunity as a framework that could explain the changes in risks and changes affecting social movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A partnership is the relationship existing between two or more persons or entities that join to carry on a trade or business. Each one contributes money, property, labor or skill, and expects to share in the profits and losses of the business. This paper aims to describe some types of partnerships between governments, communities, new social movements and firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renowned civil rights advocate and race man Thurgood Marshall came of age as a lawyer during the black protest movement in the 1930s. He represented civil rights protesters, albeit reluctantly, but was ambivalent about post-Brown mass protests. Although Marshall recognized law's limitations, he felt more comfortable using litigation as a tool for social change. His experiences as a legal advocate for racial equality influenced his thinking as a judge. Marshall joined the United States Supreme Court in 1967, as dramatic advancement of black civil rights through litigation waned. Other social movements, notably the women's rights movement, took its place. The push for women's equality had garnered some success in Congress, but the enforcement and scope of these protections became a focus of litigation in the 1970s and 1980s. While on the Court, Marshall played an important role in the advancement of women's equality, yet a few cases suggest he struggled when the interests of race and gender equality seemed to directly clash. This paper considers the ways in which Marshall's role as a participant and lawyer in the black civil rights movement influenced his thinking about gender equality. While his record on women's equality is very strong, Marshall's position in three cases indicates that he believed institution concerns sometimes trumped otherwise valid gender equality claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the implementation of the DESD from a global perspective. It takes the position that quality education is fundamental for learning how to live sustainably, and that the DESD needs to be better positioned in the education landscape and conceived as a global social movement that must be fostered and nurtured for the well-being of humankind. It suggests that, while there has been progress, much remains to be achieved. Several key challenges are identified. With regard to overcoming these obstacles, it focuses on macro-level strategies that would allow the development of environments in which actions can take root and grow so that the work of the DESD endures beyond the decade itself. Finally, it suggests that there are some opportunities that can be seized to make the task ahead easier to accomplish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue that the target of comparison should be taken into consideration when evaluating the associated outcomes of negative comparisons in the context of dramatic social change. To achieve this general goal, we considered five distinct targets of comparison: social (my group versus another group), temporal (my group across time), and temporal inter-group (my group versus another group across time). We hypothesised that in times of constant social change, two points of anchors (social and temporal) are simultaneously needed to evaluate one's position. A total of 236 high school and university students from Mongolia participated in the study. We used hierarchical regression analysis to test our hypotheses. As predicted, we found that temporal inter-group comparisons are better predictor of collective esteem than their social and temporal counterparts. Moreover, the link from past and future temporal inter-group comparisons to collective esteem was negative as hypothesized. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the socio-economic, political, and cultural transformations that have been taking place in South America during the past ten years, particularly in Ecuador, Venezuela, and Bolivia. Whereas at the level of the states the transformations do not seem to venture beyond alternative forms of modernization, the discourses and strategies of some social movements suggest radical possibilities towards post-liberal, post-developmentalist, and post-capitalist social forms. To entertain such a possibility requires that the transformations in question be seen in terms of a double conjuncture: the crisis of the neoliberal project of the past three decades; and the crisis of the project of bringing about modernity to the continent since the Conquest. At stake in many cultural-political mobilizations in Latin America, it is further argued, is the political activation of relational ontologies, such as those of indigenous peoples and Afro-descendents, which differ from the dualist ontologies of liberal modernity. Al maestro Orlando Fals Borda, luchador incansable, In Memoriam, por su honestidadintelectual y su compromiso politico con America Latina, con la vida y con el mundo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper's purpose is to illustrate a particular historical process of articulation between neighborhood social networks and collective action based on the analysis of the genesis and continuing organizational development of a territorial social movement in particular, viz. the Federation of Workers for Land, Housing and Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the protagonism of the civil society by addressing the theme of the civil collective actions. Therefore, some conceptual presuppositions should be explained allowing that the subjects, and the character of these actions to be known and understood in the analysis. This is the initial task of the text that aims to name and to contemplate the main structural forms of the civil collective actions in contemporary Brazil, highlighting the social movements and the NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, it is observed in Brazilian social sciences an apparent break with the trend of reflux in studies of social movements, from an increase in publications geared to the theme. In particular, a significant number of scientific journals recently devoted issues to this topic. These publications seem to indicate a resumption as well as a recovery of studies on social movements, and, more broadly, on the processes of organization and social mobilization. In response to this recovery, the goal of this paper is to map the theoretical and epistemological perspectives that characterize this recent literature by means of identifying the present approaches, and, eventually, those in dispute in the current field of research on social movements in Brazil. In addition, the article aims to identify the issues raised by this literature which would form the current research agenda in the field of Social Sciences. Finally, the article raises questions about some aspects of this literature, and points out the lack of issues that should be part of the research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the attempt of social scientists associated with Unesco to create a system of knowledge production to provide the international perspective necessary for democratic governance of a world community. Social scientists constructed a federal system of international associations that institutionalized American disciplines on an international scale. An international perspective emerged through the process of interdisciplinary international research. I call this ideal of coordinating multiple subjectivities to produce objectivity the “view from everywhere.” Influenced by social psychological “action-research,” collaborative research was group therapy. The attempt to operationalize internationalists' rallying slogan, “unity in diversity,” illuminated tensions inherent in the mobilization of science for social and political reform. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]