The Social Unit Plan (1916-1920): An Experiment in Democracy and Human Services Fails

Participatory democracy and community development are explored by looking back to the bold experiment undertaken in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1916 to 1920, called the Social Unit Plan. It is a glimpse into the economic, political, cultural and social consciousness of those who participated in the experiment during that period in American history. The paper suggests that by understanding the cultural and social lives of participants, our awareness of the range of options or possible efforts at addressing human social welfare needs in the past and the present are enhanced

Participatory Research and Service-Learning: A Natural Match for the Community and Campus

Integrating academic content and service in the community brought my students a sense of connectedness between classroom learning and their personal lives and the lives of others within the larger community. This is the intent of service-learning, and like many other efforts at service-learning, this experience once again engaged students in terms of academic learning as well as affirming their connectedness to the larger community (Stanton, Giles, & Cruz, 1999). How we as faculty can create a setting for this to occur is always challenging and exciting in terms of the unique and creative ways faculty are making these connections for themselves, students and communities. Serendipity has always played a role in creating these opportunities and my experience with this project is a good case in point. The happenstance of a requirement of a grant for interdisciplinary efforts and the nature of the intent to address the health needs of a community in a holistic way all came together to produce a unique opportunity to merge service-learning pedagogy and participatory research methodology. The result was a two pronged finding. On the one hand, service-learning was found to be a significant pedagogical means to teach participatory research as well as other forms of qualitative research methods. On the other, participatory research methodology was found to have commonalities with the process of the service-learning requirements for engaging communities and providing the structure and means for accessing community service for students. The following is a description of these elements and how each contributed to our conceptualizations about the commonalities of participatory research and service-learning

Group supervision in Child Protective Service: Utilising the miracle question

In the United States, child protective workers often find themselves in an adver­sarial relationship with families. They usually carry out indirect work monitor­ ing set treatment plans and making referrals to treatment or intervention pro­ grammes such as parenting courses and anger management which have limited effectiveness in reducing risk behaviours. In this descriptive study, a group of child protective workers have undergone Solution-Focused training in direct work with families and are receiving Solution-Focused supervision. The use of the miracle question is outlined in detail as an example of how workers can be encouraged to move towards a more positive, hopeful practice

The Peculiarities of Men Aging: A Collection of Anecdotes

Men are reticent to share with others the slow realization that with age they begin to confront a world that they had not expected. They had not expected to grow old. Now that this is happening, men have few relationships that permit them to share their thoughts and moments of recognition. The anecdotes that men share are revealing in that they demonstrate basic human uncertainties about the later part of life\u27s cycle

Viagra: Medical Technology Constructing Aging Masculinity

Medicalization and commodification of the body through technology in the form of Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs is reinforcing the cultural expectations that ageing men are required to age well to maintain youthful masculinity. Ageing well is explored as it relates the construction of masculinity, sexuality and ageing men\u27s bodies

Aging and Older Men: Thoughts, Reflections and Issues: Introduction

Efforts across many fields engaged in addressing the population of aging in this country have tended to create a nearly homogenous cohort that often does not recognize the heterogeneity of aging across gender, race, ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic status, cultural and sexual orientation. The diversity within aging members of our society brings about many variations and unique issues that need to be recognized and explored by policy makers and practitioners. Among these is aging related to gender, which has tended to pay much less attention to men than women. Content analysis of journals and texts on aging has revealed a significant lack of content on men, in particular, aging and elderly men (Kosberg, 2002; Tobin, 1997)

“I Collected Money, not a Bribe”: Strategic Ambiguity and the Dynamics of Corruption in Contemporary Nigeria

This article explores the language of corruption in Nigeria. It uses Eisenberg’s Strategic Ambiguity concept to examine the extent to which Nigerian legislators and those who occupy the executive arm of the government employ ambiguous languages and actions to execute and defend corrupt practices, and how this institutionalizes the culture of corruption in contemporary Nigeria. The article further explores how ambiguous light punishment, outright non-punishment, state pardon of corrupt elites and the reward of corrupt elites with sensitive government appointments engender corruption in Nigeria. The article argues that while the elites engage in diverse corrupt practices and employ ambiguous words to defend their acts, the judiciary appears to defend rather than punish them. The paper discusses the implications of these findings, concluding that the war against corruption in Nigeria may not be effective, because as those who appear to be fighting corruption are themselves corrupt, the frameworks with which corruption is fought are strategically manipulated by the elites