{"title":"Exploring Environmental Volunteers’ Perceptions of Health to Design a Health-Related Impact Measurement Tool","authors":"Valentine Seymour, Mike Wood","doi":"10.1177/1936724421998265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1936724421998265","url":null,"abstract":"This article aims to explore the use of the user-centered design (UCD) method, mental model approach, of those who engage in environmental volunteering to work toward the development of a health-related impact measurement tool. It reports a case study which explores the use of one UCD method, a mental model approach. This is an understudied area of research that would be considerably valuable for practitioners in the voluntary sector who wish to create their own health-related impact measurement tool. Focus group interviews are used to explore how volunteers perceive the term health, their conceptual understandings, terminology used, and the attributes to measure it. This study is reported from the perspective of U.K. environmental charity, The Conservation Volunteers (TCV). Findings from this article can be used by other voluntary organizations and charities to help shape their own health-related impact measurement tool and the ways in which these tools can be tailored to suit their individual needs.","PeriodicalId":39829,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Social Science","volume":"40 1","pages":"223 - 241"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75155374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Improving Data Quality with Sociodemographic Matching?: About the Effects and Implications of Age and Gender Matching in Face-to-Face Interviews","authors":"F. Bittmann","doi":"10.1177/1936724421998257","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1936724421998257","url":null,"abstract":"According to the theory of liking, data quality might be improved in face-to-face survey settings when there is a high degree of similarity between respondents and interviewers, for example, with regard to gender or age. Using two rounds of European Social Survey data from 25 countries including more than 70,000 respondents, this concept is tested for the dependent variables amount of item nonresponse, reluctance to answer, and the probability that a third adult person is interfering with the interview. The match between respondents and interviewers is operationalized using the variables age and gender and their statistical interactions to analyze how this relates to the outcomes. While previous studies can be corroborated, overall effect sizes are small. In general, item nonresponse is lower when a male interviewer is conducting the interview. For reluctance, there are no matching effects at all. Regarding the presence of other adults, only female respondents profit from a gender match, while age is without any effect. The results indicate that future surveys should weigh the costs and benefits of sociodemographic matching as advantages are probably small.","PeriodicalId":39829,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Social Science","volume":"18 1","pages":"242 - 260"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85673342","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reflections on Embeddedness in an Applied Sociology Project in Ontario","authors":"Grace Maich, Jeff Boggs, Jonah Butovsky","doi":"10.1177/19367244211000271","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/19367244211000271","url":null,"abstract":"The growth of precarious employment across Canada prompted sociologists and community researchers to understand the causes and consequences of insecure work. However, structural context often leads research organizations’ goals to conflict with those of its members. According to organizational theory, external pressures influence organizational goals and their approaches to problem solving. Thus, the purpose of this article is to illuminate some of the concrete ways that such pressures, known as embeddedness, help to shape research output. We draw on written reflective analyses of our experiences with embeddedness while working in the research organization Poverty and Employment Precarity in Niagara (PEPiN) to highlight the external factors which constrained our data analysis and our final report’s legislative and workplace policy recommendations for relieving the economic and family stresses associated with precarious work. We argue that embeddedness under neoliberal conditions limits the extent of structural critique that research organizations make of working conditions.","PeriodicalId":39829,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Social Science","volume":"10 1","pages":"258 - 272"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89262206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jessica E. Pulis, Alexander Hollenberg, Brianna Wodabek
{"title":"Sacred Healings through Telling Story: Lessons from the Sacred Grounds","authors":"Jessica E. Pulis, Alexander Hollenberg, Brianna Wodabek","doi":"10.1177/1936724421998977","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1936724421998977","url":null,"abstract":"In Canada, women—in particular, Indigenous women—comprise the fastest growing population of those who are sentenced. These trends are evidence of the continued impact of colonialism and the residential school legacy that has been well documented by scholars in varying degrees and at all levels of the Canadian criminal justice system. However, changes to address discrimination and overrepresentation have mostly resulted in changes within the current system rather than changes to the system itself. Attempts to “indigenize the white system” through training, programming, legislation, employment, and funding continue to reinforce colonialism and fail those who are Indigenous, especially women and girls. In acknowledgment of such harm, Elizabeth Fry Peel-Halton and Correctional Services Canada (CSC) collaborated with local Elder, Little Brown Bear (Ernest W. Matton), to create space where women could participate in traditional sweat lodge ceremony and healing away from correctional facilities, with the goal of providing a more authentic experience for Indigenous women and other women who are sentenced. While there are sweat lodges at both federal and provincial facilities, the Sacred Grounds are the first off-site (i.e., away from the correctional institution) space like this in Canada. This research explores the ways the Sacred Grounds possibly reduces the settler-colonial imperatives of traditional bricks and bars corrections and may encourage and support women’s stories of resilience and reconciliation.","PeriodicalId":39829,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Social Science","volume":"78 1","pages":"273 - 291"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87390040","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Making the Case for the Socially Relevant Social Scientist","authors":"Constance Iloh, C. Connor","doi":"10.1177/1936724421993516","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1936724421993516","url":null,"abstract":"In the twenty-first century, the role and possibilities of academics could not be more significant. As such, social relevance must be inextricably linked to our goal and work as academics, thinkers, and scholars. The purpose of this article is to put forth and highlight the socially relevant social scientist as a viable and necessary component of the academic enterprise. In particular, we highlight three functions meaningful to the socially relevant social scientist: genre flexibility, social street credibility, and relational research. The article also addresses graduate education and tenure and promotion as two areas greatly in need of revisiting to cultivate and sustain socially relevant social scientists.","PeriodicalId":39829,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Social Science","volume":"21 1","pages":"318 - 327"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72710129","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social Representations of Physical Disability in a Professional Environment","authors":"Bernardeau-Moreau Denis","doi":"10.1177/1936724420982964","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1936724420982964","url":null,"abstract":"Our article addresses disability as a social construct. More precisely, our intention is to see to what degree practices and exchange and interaction situations operate on social representations of physical disability in professional environments. Our aim is to provide some elements for reflection with regard to the imagined issues of physical disability in the workplace by focusing, in particular, on the social representations that they trigger among employees and managers who work with disabled colleagues on a day-to-day basis.","PeriodicalId":39829,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Social Science","volume":"23 1","pages":"66 - 79"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78405370","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Food Assistance Deserts in Central Florida: Identifying Service Gaps Using Spatial Analysis","authors":"Emily Curran, A. Armenia","doi":"10.1177/1936724420984401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1936724420984401","url":null,"abstract":"Food assistance works to relieve food insecurity, a persistent problem in the United States disproportionately affecting marginalized communities. In this study, we take a closer look at geographical service gaps in food assistance using Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis to measure food assistance deserts, a term for areas where the nearest food assistance location is more than a mile away from the population centroid of a block group. By combining geographic data with data from the American Community Survey, we identified characteristics and predictors of food assistance deserts. Our results indicate that locations of food assistance in Central Florida are generally responsive to the needs of the community but are lacking in more affluent areas. This research was made possible through a partnership between our institution and Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. The affordability and accessibility of this project should serve as a model for assessing spatial inequality in social service agencies through collaborative community-based research.","PeriodicalId":39829,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Social Science","volume":"16 1","pages":"95 - 106"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87290871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Individualism, Holism and the Central Dilemma of Sociological Theory by Jiří Šubrt","authors":"H. Behrends","doi":"10.1177/1936724420983581","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1936724420983581","url":null,"abstract":"serves as “a useful starting point” (Tight, 2019, p. 5) for conducting and applying documentary research in interand transdisciplinary settings. By providing “the support which is largely lacking in the social research methods literature for those interested in and undertaking documentary research” (Tight, 2019, p. 5), it will therefore be of interest to assorted scholars, students, and practitioners across the social sciences who not only deal with documents but also who desire to improve or expand their awareness of these objects constituting and shaping so much of their research practices. The present and future of social research depends on documentation.","PeriodicalId":39829,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Social Science","volume":"61 1","pages":"160 - 162"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87991458","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Collaboration Consequences: New Public Management and Police-Academic Partnerships","authors":"C. Sanders, D. Langan","doi":"10.1177/1936724420984378","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1936724420984378","url":null,"abstract":"With increasing pressure on public organizations to demonstrate accountability, police services and public universities are being tasked with demonstrating how their institutional strategies are effective and economically efficient. In this paper, we draw on our own research collaborations with two different Canadian police services (Bluewater and Greenfield) on a similar community crime prevention strategy, Situation Tables. We illustrate how new public management practices are embedded in the political, economic, and organizational contexts that have inspired police-academic partnerships and invigorated the evidence-based policing movement in Canada. Our analysis illustrates how our partnerships were influenced by the performance strand of new public management that prioritizes the quantification of measures of outputs over qualitative evaluations of impact. We argue that these practices, if not interrogated, can jeopardize the integrity of evidence-based practice and policy development. Academic freedom must be retained when partnering with the police to ensure an examination of the implications of police practices.","PeriodicalId":39829,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Social Science","volume":"89 1","pages":"241 - 257"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80215323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Specters of Goffman: Impression Management in the Irish Welfare Space","authors":"Joe Whelan","doi":"10.1177/1936724420983578","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1936724420983578","url":null,"abstract":"The Goffmanian thesis of stigma occurring as an aspect of “spoiled identity” has arguably provided the dominant theoretical understanding of social stigma over the past half century. Yet, there have also been strong critiques of Goffman’s thesis of stigma which range from concerns with the micro-personal nature of his work to question marks over the corpus of materials used by Goffman when originally theorizing stigma. Recent scholarly contributions have theorized a more structural understanding of the role and function of stigma and this, in turn, has arguably forced the question of whether or not Goffman’s thesis of stigma has now become redundant in terms of its application in the social sciences. This paper intends to explore this question by offering a juxtaposition of the theoretical and the empirical. To meet this task, the paper first engages in a theoretical discussion of the Goffmanian thesis of social stigma. Crucially, however, original research, conducted in Ireland, is also presented. This empirical material shows that, despite the very valid concerns with Goffman’s theory of stigma, much of his analysis with respect to impression management is borne out in lived experience. In doing so, aspects of the Goffmanian thesis of impression management as a response to the potential for stigma are affirmed thus demonstrating the continuing applicability of this theoretical strand. New understandings of impression management are also advanced.","PeriodicalId":39829,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Social Science","volume":"25 1","pages":"47 - 65"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87366740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}