Renowned visionary and theorist bell hooks began her exploration of the meaning of love in American culture with the critically acclaimed All About Love: New Visions. She continued her national dialogue with the bestselling Salvation: Black People and Love. Now hooks culminates her triumphant trilogy of love with Communion: The Female Search for Love.

Intimate, revealing, provocative, Communion challenges every female to courageously claim the search for love as the heroic journey we must all choose to be truly free. In her trademark commanding and lucid language, hooks explores the ways ideas about women and love were changed by feminist movement, by women's full participation in the workforce, and by the culture of self-help.

Communion is the heart-to-heart talk every woman -- mother, daughter, friend, and lover -- needs to have.

Sexual Coercion in Dating Relationships represents the next generation of research in the area of sexual coercion. This collection of critical analyses of current research and possible directions for future research benefits all researchers, counselors, and educators who need to thoroughly understand research efforts in this field. The clear analyses allow readers to evaluate critical issues and progress in the field to date.Outside of research and feminist communities, sexual coercion is frequently minimized and too often stereotyped. The words "sexual coercion" (synonyms with "sexual aggression" and "sexual assault") conjure in the minds of many the image of a deranged man attacking a woman stranger in a dark place where she should know better than to be walking alone. This and other stereotypes are challenged by the authors of Sexual Coercion in the Dating Relationship.The chapters examine other important issues that have yet received little research attention. For example, one author tests the empirical assumptions inherent in a prominent theory about the causes of sexual coercion. Some of the authors challenge the assumption that only women are pressured or forced to engage in unwanted or nonconsensual sex. Other authors address issues related to the prevention of sexual coercion of women and challenge current conceptions of women's sexuality. Still others identify methodological problems related to research on sexual coercion, such as current methods of identifying attitudes supportive of the use of sexual coercion. All of the chapters challenge current beliefs related to the issue of sexual coercion and are designed to spur researchers and educators forward into new ground.With the publication of this book, readers are forced to re-think their assumptions on sexual coercion with the new statistics and research on these topics: evaluates of a prominent theory of the causes of sexual coercion (the traditional script) examines men's and women's use of sexual influence in their dating relationships, the types of behavior men and women use to influence their partners to engage in unwanted sex, and the associated consequences for the individuals and the relationship compares men's and women's reactions to sexual coercion presents a model to predict women's resistance and evaluates effective, practical measures of prevention for women evaluates attitudes-toward-rape literature and the predictive ability of assessing attitudes critical reviews of current conceptions of women's sexuality and the need to restructure culturally endorsed attitudes in our prevention efforts reviews methodological problems plaguing many current research investigations and the political ramifications of many investigations in this areaBecause this book presents information related to the prevention and experience of sexual coercion, Sexual Coercion in Dating Relationships is helpful in developing long-term research and preventive programs. This sourcebook also helps researchers, expert witnesses, counselors (especially college support staff), and college and university educators provide information to students and others about sexual coercion.

The informal economy did not disappear, nor did it decrease. Despite early predictions of its eventual demise, it has not only grown worldwide, but also emerged in new forms and unexpected places. This book presents some in-depth cases regarding specific informal economic activities in Brazil. Using an ethnographic approach, the Author shows the social and economic processes that allow the informal economy to be reproduced, revealing the complex and heterogeneous relations between the formal and the informal parts of economy. Throughout detailed descriptions of informality in action, the book provides interesting starting-points to investigate the renewed dilemmas of the informal economy and its linkages with globalization processes.

Organizational Culture, Rule-Governed Behavior and Organizational Behavior Management is an introduction to concepts that link organizational behavior management (OBM) with the fields of organizational ecology, cultural anthropology, organizational development, and organizational behavior. This important book can help OBM researchers and managers more precisely analyze complex work environments to develop more comprehensive yet highly focused interventions to improve individual and organizational effectiveness. Organizational Culture, Rule-Governed Behavior and Organizational Behavior Management includes theoretical accounts of rule-governed behavior and cultural practices that expand the OBM's boundaries to include more comprehensive analyses and intervention designs that can lead to more effective and larger scale interventions. Although OBM researchers have long recognized that the relationships between an organization and its environment are important for survival, they have not made organization-environment relations a primary focus of their interventions.In addition, most descriptions of OBM interventions have not included a precise account of how the components of the interventions bring about ultimate performance changes they produce. With this book, OBM researchers will learn how to identify organizational behavior/performance targets that can be changed and adapted to constantly changing competitive environments to improve an organization's chances of survival. It also outlines two theories of rule-governed behavior. These theories characterize and explain how rules and their descriptions work to change or maintain effects of delayed rewards on current behavior/performance relationships. In so doing, they fill in the missing links required to achieve more valid and precise analyses of work environments that can be expected to result in more precise and effective OBM interventions. In Organizational Culture, Rule-Governed Behavior and Organizational Behavior Management, OBM researchers will learn how organizational cultural practices, organizational effectiveness, and rule-governed behaviors in organizations interact in complex ways to determine, in part, the adaptability and long-term survival of organizations.Reading this book will help academics, researchers, and practitioners better understand and predict how people in organizations will react to OBM interventions. All OBM managers including high-level managers, members of boards of directors and their consultants who are attempting to develop more effective organizations, will benefit from these discussions of organizational adaptation changing competitive environments. This essential volume presents organizational culture concepts cast in OBM terms that can be understood by all OBM researchers and practitioners and will be useful to anyone interested in organizational development on a large scale. Professors teaching OBM courses will find this presentation of rule-governed behavior an essential ingredient to every course in OBM.

Based on the belief that older people have good stories to tell, Story Writing in a Nursing Home was developed as part of a volunteer teaching service to a nursing home. Graduate students who were learning to teach this special population conducted story writing activities with older adults and found that even the frail elderly who are confined to nursing centers provided a unique perspective about events that emphasize the lasting verities in life. The idea of a patchwork was derived from one of the lessons taught and was suggested by one of the older participants who said, "We're sort of like a patchwork quilt." The information, memories, and humor the elderly see in situations is worth recording. In addition, Story Writing in a Nursing Home emphasizes the way to develop the mental stimulation that is so important for physical well being. This sensitive and insightful book provides a lesson plan outline and the type of content that was used as an example. It also provides a running commentary in the form of a diary that tells how to begin a teaching program for nursing center residents. Students and professionals interested in implementing a similar program can use these ideas for planning and for organizing the use of student help to better serve the population. Fascinating reading, this book includes stories by frail elderly people, lesson plans, tips on working with administrators in a nursing center, and reasons for providing instruction. Teachers, volunteers, librarians, gerontology/sociology students, and others concerned with the well-being of the elderly will refer often to this instructive volume.

As the elderly population continues to increase, the need for suitable housing will continue to rise as well. This handbook is designed to help individuals and families determine the feasibility of starting a small home business providing residential home services for one or more elderly persons. Persons interested in starting a business of this type will find this unique book a goldmine of important information. Residential Care Services for the Elderly is a valuable decision-making tool which helps readers determine if this type of business venture is appropriate and, if so, how to start and maintain a residential care service for the elderly. Thorough coverage of background and implementation details provides potential operators with a rationale and necessary information. Numerous self-assessment and resource inventories in this practical handbook will guide readers in determining their areas of interests and competencies. Opportunities for networking among state licensing/standards agencies, funding agencies, and a listing of elder care organizations and advocacy groups adds value to this time-saving resource, ensuring a quicker and more likely success. Case studies, detailed guides, and the discussion of positive and negative aspects of being the owner of a small residential care business, based on interviews with people currently running elder care residential services, are also included. All aspects of business operations are covered in Residential Care Services for the Elderly, including sources of funding and potential incomes; emotional and financial cost/benefit factors; parameters of organizing the business including personnel, respite care workers, need for registered nurses, and food service; special needs of clients; details of financial plans with outlines and sample forms; and variables of success and failure. Graduate and undergraduate students taking classes in regard to gerontological business and long-term care related alternatives will also find this statistic-filled handbook a useful reference.

Environmental Practice in the Human Services points to the need for the human services to return to their historic mission of environmental change. It moves beyond the more general conceptual emphasis on person-in-environment toward the development of an environmental practice technology based on an intervention model which prescribes specific micro and macro roles and functions. It may open the way to recapturing the conceptual breadth which characterized the first 40 years of social work as a professional and occupational entity. The "ecological" perspective in social work has fostered an interest in the impact of social environments on service consumers. Environmental Practice in the Human Services tries to rectify the historical imbalance in the human services that has emphasized people-changing methods, giving secondary emphasis to environmental change. It instructs students preparing for practice in the human services, as well as agency practitioners, in the knowledge and skills necessary in environmental practice. Cases in environmental practice are used to illustrate how these skills are utilized in actual practice situations.The book's scope includes practice at the direct service, adminstration, planning, and social policy levels; it integrates micro and macro practice and shows how these two levels of practice are interdependent. This enables human service practitioners to create and/or modify social environments to enhance the functioning of clients being served in human service programs. Topics covered include: important skills in environmental practice, including decisionmaking, negotiating, and leadership community practice and resource coordination social support the impact of organizational environments on practice environmental practice for the chronically disabledAuthor Neugeboren's approach is unique in its in-depth focus on environmental practice, applying concepts of social environment to specific practice roles. This practice-specific content, which provides tools needed for environmental practice, is in contrast to existing texts on the social environment which are very theoretical and not integrated with practice. He includes material from the field of social ecology which has not been included in existing texts. It shows how practitioners and administrators, planners, and policymakers can facilitate and support each other's work.Reading Environmental Practice in the Human Services will enlighten students and practitioners with specific skills for impacting on different social environments to enhance client benefit. It tells how a direct service practitioner can determine which organizational environments are suitable for particular client needs in making agency referrals. It also provides administrators with information about designing, planning, and managing agencies with functional organizational environments which achieve effective services.

Based on the presentations and discussions from a national symposium on family-school links held at the Pennsylvania State University, this volume brings together psychologists, sociologists, educators, and policymakers studying the bidirectional effects between schools and families. This topic -- the links between families and schools, and how these affect children's educational achievement -- encompasses a host of questions, each of key social and educational significance. * How far does parental involvement in schools affect children's experiences and achievement at school? * What explains the great differences between schools, families, and communities in the extent of such involvement? * Are these differences a matter of school practices, or do they reflect much broader social and cultural divisions? * What is the nature of the impact schools have on children and their families? * How can family-school-partnerships be fostered in a way that helps children? The chapter authors consider these questions and related issues, present different perspectives, highlight various aspects of the issues, and suggest widely differing answers. This volume's goal is to provide the reader with current information on what is known about family-school-community links, and to provoke new ways of thinking about these links and their implications for children's education and well-being.

An enlightening book, You Bring Out the Music in Me, explores how music motivates, enriches, touches, relaxes, and energizes the elderly in nursing homes. Practicing music therapists explain how music "speaks" to all of us, regardless of our language, culture, or abilities and how it can be used with groups and individuals in nursing homes to encourage relaxation and expression of feeling and increase socialization. The chapters encompass both music therapy practice in gerontology as well as practical ideals and suggestions for activities directors who want to use music in their nursing home activities programs. This readable book includes a history of music therapy, the need for research in the field, discussions of music in groups and music with individuals, and a useful resource list of music materials.

In this third Volume of Logological Investigations, Sandywell continues his sociological reconstruction of the origins of reflexive thought and discourse with special reference to pre-Socratic philosophy and science and their socio-political context.
He begins by criticizing traditional histories of philosophy which abstract speculative thought from its sociocultural and historical contexts, and proposes instead an explicitly contextual and reflexive approach to ancient Greek society and culture.
Each chapter is devoted to a seminal figure or "school" of reflection in early Greek philosophy. Special emphasis is placed upon the verbal and rhetorical innovations of protophilosophy in the sixth and fifth centuries BC. These chapters are also exemplary displays of the distinctive Logological method of culture analysis and through them Sandywell shows that by returning to the earliest problematics of reflexivity in pre-modern culture we may gain an insight into some of the central currents of modern and postmodern self-reflection.

In "Culture, Modernity and Revolution" a group of internationally renowned sociologists from East and West, come together to honor Zygmunt Bauman. Their essays not only honor the man, but provide important contributions to the three interlinked themes that could be said to form the guiding threads of Bauman's life and work: power, culture and modernity. "Culture, Modernity and Revolution" is both a remarkable sociological commentary on the problems facing East-Central Europe and an exposition of some of the key, hitherto neglected, features of the modern cultural universe.
The book has a unity of purpose. In no sense is it a development of Bauman's ideas by followers: its editors retain a critical distance and seek to present the man and his ideas to a wide audience. It will be of interest to sociologists, philosophers, political scientists and students of culture.

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This book explores key factors long-term care recipients have identified as impacting their quality of life and offers programmatic and policy recommendations to enhance well-being within long-term care communities. Leadership and staff who work in nursing homes and other residential care communities serve as gatekeepers to resident well-being, often without recognizing how residents' quality of life is impacted by their decision-making. This book takes a life domain approach to build on research-based studies that document key drivers of care recipients' quality of life, including relationships, autonomy and respect, activities and meals, environment, and care. Using a framework that enhances understanding of resident quality of life, it outlines practical, programmatic, and policy suggestions for long-term care stakeholders, such as administrators, managers, front-line staff, family members, and policy-makers, whose directives and actions impact the lived experience of long-term care residents. As such, this book serves as a roadmap for leaders and managers of long-term care communities, along with policymakers who regulate health and human services, to best structure care environments to maximize quality of life and well-being for long-term care recipients.

The material effects of World War II, in combination with Eastern Europe's disappointingly undemocratic interwar history, placed radical social change on the postwar agenda across the region and shaped the debates that took place in immediate postwar Czech society. These debates adopted both a cultural form, in struggles over the meaning of the recent past and the nation's position on the East-West continuum, and a directly political form, in battles over the meaning of socialism. The Struggle for the Soul of the Nation examines the most important and politically resonant fields of historical and cultural debate in Czech society immediately after World War II. Bradley Abrams finds that communist public figures were largely successful in controlling debate over the nation's recent past_the interwar First Republic and the experiences of Munich and World War II_and over its location on the EastDWest continuum. This success preceded and was mirrored in the struggles over the political issue of the times: socialism. The communists engaged their political foes in the democratic socialist and Roman Catholic camps, and, surprisingly, found significant support from a major Protestant church. Abrams's careful reading of major publications re-creates a postwar mood sympathetic to radical social change, questioning the standard view of the communists' rise to power. This book not only contributes to the specific literature on Czech history, but also raises questions about the relationship between war and radical social change, about the communist takeover of the region, and about the role of intellectuals in public life.

Environmental Marketing: Strategies, Practice, Theory, and Research is a timely resource for the 1990s. It examines a broad range of issues that affect environmental behavior while providing materials and guidance to marketing decisionmakers. It will guide your organization toward a decidedly "green" marketing movement, toward marketing concepts and tools that not only serve your organization's objectives but preserve and protect the environment as well.Environmental Marketing clearly defines the potential roles of organizations, consumers, and governments and examines how these groups impact environmental factors through the marketing process. The book helps you understand alternative perspectives to green marketing issues and, in turn, enables you to make clearer, more conscious decisions toward improving your environmental marketing performance.This resourceful text begins by defining the concept of environmental or "green" marketing and how the idea of a healthy planet and successful marketing strategies can co-exist. It discusses the consumer's behavior toward environmental products and how marketers can effectively educate them, the guidelines involved in doing so, and the consequences of failing to do so. The marketer's position on environmental changes in industry is examined along with alternatives for striking a balance between marketing objectives and environmental concerns. Finally, the book discusses the global response to environmental marketing and where multi-national organizations belong within this balance.Environmental Marketing is a book for all managers involved in decisions impacting the environment. It is also of great interest to public policymakers and academicswho wish for quick insight into environmental marketing issues.

Many changes have happened in sociology around the world in the last few decades. This reference work offers a thorough overview of recent developments in sociology in a wide range of countries. The chapters, written by expert contributors, provide first-hand information on new research trends and significant advances. Chapters generally provide a broad historical context, and then focus on developments in sociology since 1975. Part One contains chapters on sociology in Western and Northern Europe. Part Two, on the Western Hemisphere, includes several chapters on sociology in the United States, along with Canada and Latin America. Part Three discusses the many changes in Eastern Europe that have happened in recent years, while Parts Four, Five, and Six, covering Southern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and the Far East add a valuable perspective to the work. Chapters include detailed bibliographies, and a selected, general bibliography concludes the work.

Drawing upon findings from many disciplines including sociology, communication, family studies, human development, psychology and anthropology-this book provides the first composite study of the whole family and of the complex interplay between self and collectivity in family life. It departs sharply from the traditional two-person, cause-effect models used in conventional studies, and attempts to delineate a social psychology of the family.

This book undertakes to define and understand the nature of families, to point out ways of discerning different family characters, and to comprehend the processes by which these characters are established and maintained; by so doing, it introduces a new dimension into the study of family behavior and provides a framework within which meaningful investigations and practical applications can be pursued.

This long-awaited fourth edition continues the goal of preceding editions: to understand families in terms of the kinds of interaction through which family life is constructed. Contributors drawn from a wide variety of disciplines sociology; communication; family studies; human development; psychology; anthropology; and social work - provide a range of authoritative and up-to-date sources on the family and interpersonal relations, including newly emergent forms of family organization. In providing a new framework for fruitful investigation and practical application, this volume contains the best available interdisciplinary work on the social psychology of the family.

The idea for this book was formed during the early 1980s when the author was studying the impact of plant closings on displaced workers and communities. In one community, workers who were displaced by a plant closing expected to receive retraining funds through the Job Training and Partnership Act (JTPA), only to find that the state had committed all the JTPA funds to train new workers for a Japanese transplant. Soon it became apparent that deindustrialization, job loss, and economically depressed communities were linked with the escalating interstate competition to provide multi-million dollar incentive packages for businesses to settle in their state. When Japanese automobile companies considered coming to the United States, they fueled the interstate competition for these large projects, which promised thousands of jobs and economic growth.

Since the early decades of the 20th century, the notion of the hormonally-constructed body has become the dominant mode of conceptualizing bodies, particularly female bodies, to such an extent that it is often assumed to be a natural phenomenon. This book challenges the idea that there is such a thing as a "natural" body and demonstrates that it is the process by which scientific claims achieve universal status that constructs such discourses as natural facts. The work tells the story of scientists' search for the many tons of ovaries, testes and urine that were required in experiments to develop the hormonal body concept. It traces the origins of sex hormones and follows their development through mass-production as drugs to their eventual transformation into the contraceptive pill.

Concern with various matters related to humans as they communicate has led to an increase in both research and theorizing during the second half of the 20th century. As a matter of fact, so many scholars and so many disciplines have become involved in this process that it is virtually impossible to understand and appreciate all that has been accomplished so far. This book focuses on one important aspect of human sense-making -- theory building -- and strives to clarify the thesis that theories do not develop in some sort of social, intellectual, or cultural vacuum. They are necessarily the products of specific times, insights, and mindsets. Theories dealing with the "process" of communication, or communicating, are tied to socio-cultural value systems and historic factors that influence individuals in ways often inadequately understood by those who use them. The process-orientation of this book inevitably leads to an emphasis on the perceptions of human beings. Thus, the focus shifts from the subject or area called "communication" to the "act of communicating." Finally, this volume offers insight into how the process of human sense-making has evolved in those academic fields commonly identified as communication, rhetoric, speech communication or speech, within specific socio-cultural settings.

Here is an essential resource filled with advice for providing social services to gay and lesbian couples. Despite myths to the contrary, many gay men and lesbians form long-term couples relationships. Unfortunately, many professionals working in the area of social services lack training with regard to the special needs of gay/lesbian couples. Social Services for Gay and Lesbian Couples helps fill this gap by providing information on diverse aspects of gay and lesbian domestic partnerships for social services workers.The contributing authors highlight the unique characteristics of gay and lesbian couples relationships and provide valuable information on the special social services these couples may need. Social Services for Gay and Lesbian Couples includes the results of a survey that divulge basic, descriptive information on the nature of gay and lesbian couples. These in-depth statistics reveal couples'perspectives on relationship length, commitment, and quality, terms of address for partners, finances, relationship experience, discrimination, living situation, sex, first meetings, support and challenges for the relationship, children, legal arrangements, and concerns about HIV and AIDS. In addition to revealing specific information about gay and lesbian couples, Social Services for Gay and Lesbian Couples also explores the therapeutic implications of this knowledge for social service providers. Chapters discuss specific situations in gay and lesbian relationships about which social workers should be informed, such as the factors involved in the formation of lesbian identities and issues encountered by gay couples when one partner is HIV-infected and the other is not. Also addressed are the special needs of gay or lesbian couples who wish to be parents, complete with descriptions of innovative services and the names, addresses, and phone numbers of national organizations that provide resources for gay or lesbian parents.

In this time of great upheaval in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Karl Marx's relevance to contemporary social science may seem remote. However, this important study by Charles McKelvey shows just the opposite: Marx's concept of science can help social scientists gain a greater understanding of today's world society. Western ethnocentrism has, McKelvey argues, isolated the Euro-American social scientist from a true picture of conditions in the Third World. Modern sociology must rethink itself, McKelvey believes, in light of Marxian concepts, Immanuel Wallerstein's world systems perspective, and the cognitional theory of philosopher Bernard Lonergan. The main purpose of McKelvey's book is to formulate a social scientific method for the attainment of objective knowledge. First, the book examines elements of Marx's work which have been overlooked or misunderstood. Next, McKelvey takes a sociology of knowledge approach and studies Marx's biography in order to grasp the full essence of Marx's concept of science. The book then draws on Lonergan's philosophy to reformulate Marx's concept of science in a manner appropriate for the twentieth century. The final part of the book illustrates Marx's reconstructed concept of science through discussion of theories of Third World underdevelopment. Beyond Ethnocentrism will be of great interest to sociologists, political scientists, historians, and philosophers whose work focuses on Marx or Marxist literature, social science, or Lonergan.

A new approach to the analysis of cultural reproduction focusing on the impact of economic change. The book demonstrates the reinforcement of cultural stereotypes in recruitment caused by interaction between corporate restructuring and the education system.; This book is intended for academics, postgraduates and advanced undergraduates in sociology with an interest in the sociology of work and the sociology of education as well as researchers and students within human resource management and cultural studies.