From Household Size to the Life Course

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66696/2/10.1177_000276427702100207.pd

Consumer behaviour and the life-course: shopper reactions to self service grocery shops and supermarkets in England c.1947-1975

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this recordThe paper examines the development of self-service grocery shopping from a consumer perspective. Using qualitative data constructed through a nationwide biographical survey and oral histories, it is possible to go beyond contemporary market surveys which give insufficient attention to shopping as a socially and culturally embedded practice. The paper uses the conceptual framework of the life-course, to demonstrate how grocery shopping is a complex activity, in which the retail encounter is shaped by the specific interconnection of different retail formats with consumer characteristics and situational influences. Consumer reactions to retail modernization must be understood in relation to the development of consumer practices at points of transition and stability within the life-course. These practices are accessed by examining retrospective consumer narratives about food shopping

How Do Social Security and Income Affect the Living Arrangements of the Elderly? Evidence from Reforms in Mexico and Uruguay

It has been shown that the social security system and other sorts of government transfers have helped poor elderly people, such as widows, to live alone in the U. S. This paper investigates whether government financial support contributed to the increase in the probability of the vulnerable elderly living alone in Latin American countries as well. Specifically, the countries that in the 1980s experienced government reforms favorable to the vulnerable elderly, Mexico and Uruguay, are examined. It is concluded that the improvement of educational attainment was mainly responsible for helping the elderly poor to live alone in rural areas in Mexico, and not the government system. On the other hand, in Uruguay, for unmarried elderly females, the increase in social security income explains most of the increase in the probability of living alone

Gender differences in the impact of family background on leaving the parental home

We address the question to what extent characteristics of the family of origin influence the timing of leaving the parental home and to what extent these effects differ between men and women. We use data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study to examine the effects of parental resources, atmosphere in the family of origin and family structure on leaving home to live without a partner and leaving home to live with a partner. The results indicate that a pleasant atmosphere in the parental home decreases the risk of leaving home and living in stepfamilies or single-parent families increases this risk. The availability of parental resources leads to a decreased risk of leaving home at young ages, but an increased risk at later ages. Many of these effects are found for both men and women and for both pathways out of the home. Furthermore, we find evidence that women are affected more strongly by family background characteristics than men are

Modernization and Its Discontents

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67022/2/10.1177_000276427702100208.pd

"Velhos são os Trapos": do positivismo clássico à nova era

Para que o ser humano consiga concretizar o direito à vida plena e digna, para que se justifique completamente a procura pela longevidade, deve socialmente permitir-se que essa vida maior seja igualmente melhor. Para que isso aconteça algo tem que mudar nas representações da velhice, no respeito pelas particularidades que a envolvem e pela oferta de estruturas específicas. A velhice é uma fase da vida que tem sido socialmente desvalorizada, negativamente representada, o que se reflete na qualidade de vida dos idosos. Esse ensaio reflexivo pretende desvelar os principais debates culturais sobre a velhice, ao analisar duas estruturas ideológicas dicotômicas sobre o envelhecimento e a velhice. Os resultados são defensores da necessidade de construção de imagens positivas sobre o envelhecimento, para combater os tradicionais modelos de declínio e de despessoalização. Realça-se a complexidade e a heterogeneidade dos fenômenos em análise sublinhando a aplicação de novas estratégias destinadas à construção de uma nova era sobre a velhice, ancorada nos paradigmas de cidadania e pluralidade sociais.For human beings to fulfil their right to live a full and dignified life, to completely justify the quest for longevity, it must be socially possible for that greater life to be also a better one. For this to occur, something needs to change in the representations of old age, in the respect for its particularities, and in the supply of specific structures. Old age is a stage of life that has been socially devalued, being represented in a negative way. This reflects on the quality of life of older people. This reflexive essay shall explore the main cultural debates regarding old age by analysing two dichotomic ideological structures on aging and old age. The results defend the need to build positive images regarding aging in order to fight the traditional models of decline and depersonalization. Noteworthy is the complexity and heterogeneity of the phenomena being analysed, highlighting the application of new strategies in order to build a new era for old age anchored on the social paradigms of citizenship and plurality

A Strawberry KNOX Gene Regulates Leaf, Flower and Meristem Architecture

The KNOTTED-LIKE HOMEODOMAIN (KNOX) genes play a central role in maintenance of the shoot apical meristem. They also contribute to the morphology of simple and compound leaves. In this report we characterize the FaKNOX1 gene from strawberry (Fragaria spp.) and demonstrate its function in trasgenic plants. The FaKNOX1 cDNA was isolated from a cultivated strawberry (F.×ananassa) flower EST library. The sequence is most similar to Class I KNOX genes, and was mapped to linkage group VI of the diploid strawberry genome. Unlike most KNOX genes studied, steady-state transcript levels were highest in flowers and fruits. Transcripts were also detected in emerging leaf primordia and the apical dome. Transgenic strawberry plants suppressing or overexpressing FaKNOX1 exhibited conspicuous changes in plant form. The FaKNOX1 RNAi plants presented a dwarfed phenotype with deeply serrated leaflets and exaggerated petiolules. They also exhibited a high level of cellular disorganization of the shoot apical meristem and leaves. Overexpression of FaKNOX1 caused dwarfed stature with wrinkled leaves. These gain- and loss-of-function assays in strawberry functionally demonstrate the contributions of a KNOX domain protein in a rosaceous species

Social change and the family: Comparative perspectives from the west, China, and South Asia

This paper examines the influence of social and economic change on family structure and relationships: How do such economic and social transformations as industrialization, urbanization, demographic change, the expansion of education, and the long-term growth of income influence the family? We take a comparative and historical approach, reviewing the experiences of three major sociocultural regions: the West, China, and South Asia. Many of the changes that have occurred in family life have been remarkably similar in the three settings—the separation of the workplace from the home, increased training of children in nonfamilial institutions, the development of living arrangements outside the family household, increased access of children to financial and other productive resources, and increased participation by children in the selection of a mate. While the similarities of family change in diverse cultural settings are striking, specific aspects of change have varied across settings because of significant pre-existing differences in family structure, residential patterns of marriage, autonomy of children, and the role of marriage within kinship systems.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45661/1/11206_2005_Article_BF01124383.pd