How Funding of Non-profit Social Organizations Affects the Number of Volunteers

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - In recent decades, significant changes have occurred to how charities and non-profit organizations are funded. However,...     

Reasoning Together Through Telling Stories: How People Talk about Social Controversies

Qualitative Sociology - We use focus groups of ordinary citizens talking about social controversies to analyze the role of storytelling in collective reasoning. Prior research has emphasized...     

Women and Social Security:

This article explores some major assumptions underlying the Social Security system and alternative approaches to rendering the system more economically viable, meeting the income needs of the elderly and/or providing greater equity under its benefit and taxation provisions. It attempts to show that the current structure of Social Security not only reinforces but also exacerbates the underlying economic inequalities in our nation's political economy under the guise of a social insurance program. In addressing selected benefit and taxation issues, the article focuses on how working and older women are faring in the 1990s under the Social Security system. It argues that although the program theoretically is gender neutral, its impact is not. Women, particularly those who are single, are poorly served. The article concludes that a progressive restructuring of the Social Security system itself is imperative if we are to meet the needs of a large percentage of workers, older people, and the economic and social demands of the 1990s and beyond. It also offers some suggestions for such change.     

How Terrorism Affects Attitudes toward Democracy: Tunisia in 2015

Tunisia is the only country that emerged from the Arab Spring as a democracy. However, Tunisian democracy is threatened by political divisions, economic problems, and the threat of terrorist attacks. We shed light on Tunisia's democratic prospects by examining (1) the degree to which major terrorist attacks in 2015 influenced Tunisian public opinion on democracy and (2) the extent to which preference for a democratic system affected opinions on the prospects for democracy in Tunisia. We use data from three waves of a nationwide survey conducted just before and just after Tunisia's first major terrorist attack, and just after the country's second major terrorist attack. We demonstrate that after the attacks the Tunisian public became less favourable toward democracy and less optimistic that Tunisia would soon be ready for it. Such scepticism was widespread, affecting people who preferred democracy as much as those who did not. We conclude that the prospects for Tunisian democracy are more precarious than is sometimes assumed.     

Secondary Trauma: How Working with Trauma Survivors Affects Therapists

Secondary trauma, a relatively recent topic that has emerged in the field of social work, includes the emotional and psychological effects that working with traumatized clients has on therapists. Secondary trauma can seriously impact therapists' personal and professional well-being. Trauma therapists face major ethical dilemmas if their reactions to being traumatized enter into the therapeutic relationship, exposing clients to psychological harm or possibly re-traumatization. As many graduate programs in social work and social service agencies are still unaware of this phenomenon, recommendations are made for how to introduce the topic as priority and how to cope with and prevent secondary trauma.     

Social Security reform: implications for women

Despite recent economic gains for women, a substantial gender gap in financial security during old age remains, making women more dependent than men upon Social Security. Social Security plays an important role in providing for women's economic security. The implications for women of several proposed changes in Social Security policy, including the call for the partial privatization of Social Security via the introduction of individual accounts, are analyzed. Many of the proposals would have the effect of asking women, particularly low-income women, to shoulder a disproportionate share of the risks and burdens associated with the changes.     

How Migrant Status Affects Health Beyond Socioeconomic Status: Evidence from Austria

The debate on health inequalities usually focuses on the interplay between socioeconomic status (SES) and health, where it is widely accepted that the former influences the latter. However, little is known on whether the influence of SES on health is sufficient to explain the observed lower health statuses among various migrant groups in European countries. This paper presents a model that integrates the influences of SES and migrant status on health and tests its implications empirically for Austria. Several ordered logit regressions are performed, whose results show that particular migrant groups are disadvantaged with respect to health. In addition, the overall influence of migrant status on health is considerably stronger for women than for men, while health status of men is influenced by interactions between migrant status and occupational status.     

How Rumination Affects Marital Conflict in Iranian Women: A Qualitative Study

Rumination can cause numerous problems for an individual. Previous studies have indicated that the tendency of women toward rumination is greater than that of men. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate how rumination might affect marital conflict in Iranian women. This qualitative study has a thematic analysis design. Using purposeful sampling, women were recruited to be interviewed using a semistructured manual, and the sampling continued until it reached saturation (N = 63). Analysis of the data showed that findings could be grouped into 5 themes: insecure attachment style, deteriorating behaviors, deactivation, uncertainty about the relationship, and negative emotions. The finding of this research is that when marital conflicts are not solved, insecure attachment styles are activated, possibly resulting in rumination. As a result, rumination will exacerbate the negative emotions and marital relationship quality.     

Social Movement Rhetoric and the Social Psychology of Collective Action: A Case Study of Anti-Abortion Mobilization

This paper seeks to contribute toward anintegrated approach to social movement mobilization. Itdoes so through considering how a social psychologicalaccount of the determination of collective behavior (selfcategorization theory) may be applied tothe mobilization rhetoric of social movements. Morespecifically it argues that as people may definethemselves and act in terms of social categories, we may usefully conceive of social movement rhetoricas being organized so as to construct social categorydefinitions which allow the activists preferred courseof action to be taken on by others as their own. Our theoretical argument is illustrated throughthe detailed analysis of category construction incontemporary U.K. anti-abortion argumentation.     

Social Movement Rhetoric and the Social Psychology of Collective Action: A Case Study of Anti-Abortion Mobilization

This paper seeks to contribute toward anintegrated approach to social movement mobilization. Itdoes so through considering how a social psychologicalaccount of the determination of collective behavior (self-categorization theory) may be applied tothe mobilization rhetoric of social movements. Morespecifically it argues that as people may definethemselves and act in terms of social categy usefully conceive of social movement rhetoricas being organized so as to construct social categorydefinitions which allow the activists preferred courseof action to be taken on by others. Our theoretical argument is illustrated throughthe detailed analysis of category construction incontemporary U.K. anti-abortion argumentation.     

Subject to Evaluation: How Parents Assess and Mobilize Information from Social Networks in School Choice

A rich literature examines how information spreads through social networks to influence life opportunities. However, receiving information does not guarantee its use in decision making. This article analyzes information evaluation as a fundamental component of social network mobilization. The case of school choice, where the value of information may be more uncertain, brings this evaluative dimension to the forefront. Interviews with 55 parents in Boston show how parents selecting schools assess their social network ties as information sources, privileging information from those they perceive to have affinity and authority. These evaluative criteria map onto disparate networks to engender unequal mobilization of this information. The findings illuminate mechanisms sustaining inequality in social network mobilization and reorient scholars to consider processes underlying information use alongside information diffusion to attain a more complete understanding of how network resources are mobilized in action.     

Information,Community, and Action on Sina-Weibo: How Chinese Philanthropic NGOs Use Social Media

This study explored Chinese NGOs’ behavior on domestic social media platforms. By observing 155 rural education NGOs on one of China’s most popular social media sites, Sina-Weibo for 6 months, we found that despite Internet censorship and the unique government-NGO relationship in China, the Chinese NGOs are active on Weibo. Like their Western counterparts, the Chinese NGOs use social media to share information, build community, and mobilize resources. Because the Chinese NGOs face some unique legitimacy problems, aside from using social media to attract followers, they also use social media’s powerful broadcasting function to improve organizational legitimacy. To fit into the Weibo community, the organizations use a large amount of slang and emoji, and publish a significant number of posts which cover popular topics, but are not related to their work.     

Women and Economic Security in Retirement:Implications for Social Security Reform

Gender-related parenting roles lower incomes of women during the working-age years and in retirement years. National retirement income programs contribute to this gender-related difference in retirement income to the degree that they consider lifetime earnings in calculating benefits. This article examines two national pension systems: those of Australia and Sweden. The pension systems of these two countries often are considered as the extremes of pension generosity, and they are based upon different philosophies about the role of government in insuring against economic risk. Due to fiscal issues and the changing roles of women in the labor market, both have reformed their systems. How system reforms can balance the role of the government in insuring against income risk and the growing financial independence of women in the work force are discussed.     

How Race Affects the Helping Process: A Case of Cross Racial Therapy

This paper explores several relevant themes in a cross-racial counseling situation between a white female worker and an African-American professional woman. Issues of racial identity development, bi-culturalism, and the effects of cross-racial counseling are discussed in detail and illustrated with case material.     

业主整合何以影响维权冲突治理——一个来自长沙市的案例研究

伴随着城镇化进程和住房商品化改革,城市业主维权冲突频发。本文基于社会整合理论,运用案例分析法,探究业主整合与冲突治理的关系。研究发现:业主整合与冲突治理之间并非遵循直接的因果逻辑,还需政府作为催生性因素的介入。这深刻反映了业主维权冲突治理对权威的高度依赖。政府有其利益动机,维稳压力差异下的政府对业主维权采取区分性的策略。业主整合的核心是个人利益驱动,离开利益驱动业主整合难以持续。私利驱动的业主,自治困境中的业委会,高度依赖权威的业主维权,无法代表"公民社会的先声"。     

Abolitionists and the Eloquence of Abuse: Revisiting Status and Rhetoric in Social Movements

Current discussions of contentious performances profitably draw upon a revival of theories of culture, emotion, and performance. Yet status theory and status claims-making continue to be neglected in the mix because of their received associations with classical tension theory and unpopular functionalist models of collective behavior. Because most social movement participants are outsiders to the ‘halls of power,’ their dependence upon the rhetoric of status in cultivating moral influence is much more fundamental than previously acknowledged, although this relation is hinted at in Tilly's notion of contentious performances. Efforts to recover status theory navigate between two major mistakes in past theories of collective behavior: the voluntaristic overemphasis of affective manipulation by charismatic leaders, and the deterministic conflation of status with large reified social structures. The concept of reception fields is proposed to refer to the relational, fluid, social–psychological status dynamics between movement leaders and audiences during contentious performances, in which distinction and rhetoric are mutually constitutive. The article situates eloquence or the emotional energy of protest rhetoric in the dramaturgical performance of status dynamics within the immediate reception field. The utility of this approach to status rhetoric is illustrated with respect to American antislavery abolitionism.