Thursday, January 6, 2011

Comment: A Public Health Perspective On HPV Vaccination

A Public Health Perspective On HPV Vaccination: Response To The HPV Vaccination Campaign: A Project Of Moral Regulation In An Era Of Biopolitics
Liane Macdonald, Shelley Deeks, Carolyn Doyle
CJS 35, 4 (2010): 627-632

Abstract
Connell and Hunt’s critique (2010) raises important questions and concerns about human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in Canada. We offer a public health perspective on several key issues, including the merits of implementing population-based HPV vaccination programs in Canada; the time-sensitivity of HPV vaccination; and, the non-judgmental approach to sexual health promotion for youth championed by Canadian public health organizations.
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Article: Gendered Practices in the Online Pro-Eating-Disorder Community

Hunger Hurts But Starving Works: A Case Study of Gendered Practices in the Online Pro-Eating-Disorder Community
Krista Whitehead
CJS 35, 4 (2010): 595-626

Abstract
This paper investigates collective identity-work of Pro-eating disorder (Pro-ED) groups on the Internet. Using an adaptation of face-to-face ethnographic methods to investigate online communication (Mann and Stewart 2000), the author analyzes five collective organizing practices in Pro-ED groups that reveal a highly gendered character: 1) promoting surreptitiousness, 2) organizing in and around the realm of domesticity, 3) equating beauty with self-worth, 4) relying on friendship as a chief organizing principle, and 5) using fandom as a method of attracting and maintaining members. In spite of exceptional resistance to their activities, women in the Pro-ED community are able to achieve a collective Pro-ED identity wherein they maintain eating-disordered lifestyles. The case study presented here interrupts popular sociological understandings of collective identity mobilization as having categorically positive consequences for its members.
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Article: Income and area effects on voluntary association membership

Income and Area Effects on Voluntary Association Membership In Canada
Laura Jane Duncan
CJS 35, 4 (2010): 573-594

Abstract
Applying multi-level modelling techniques to 2003 Canadian General Social Survey and 2001 Census Profile data , this study investigates the influence of individual income, contextual poverty and income inequality on voluntary association membership in Canada. Both individual and contextual effects on membership are uncovered, in addition to a significant cross-level interaction between individual income and area level income inequality. As individual income increases so do the odds of voluntary association membership, an effect that is fairly consistent between areas. Increases in area level poverty are associated with decreases in the odds of membership. While no main effect is found for area level income inequality, cross-level interactions indicate that the relationship between individual income and membership is moderated by area income inequality. The study findings support claims about the negative social effects of individual and contextual economic disadvantage and confirms the importance of examining contextual influences on social outcomes.
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Article: Women's Environmental Work as Cultural Change

Relational Activism: Re-Imagining Women's Environmental Work as Cultural Change
Sara O'Shaughnessy, Emily Huddart Kennedy
CJS 35, 4 (2010): 551-572

Abstract
We introduce the term “relational activism” to call attention to the way that relationship-building work contributes to conventional activism (re-activism) and constitutes activism in and of itself. In so doing, we unravel Mohai’s paradox – a long-standing “ironic contrast” that notes that women’s environmental concern is not reflected in greater contributions to activism than men’s. We position relational activism as a bridging concept between re-activism and social capital. Relational activism differs from re-activism in four key areas: the role of the individual, effectiveness, motivating values, and temporal scale. To support these claims, we draw upon 26 ethnographic interviews conducted with families in Edmonton, Alberta, who strive to reduce their environmental impact.
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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Compte rendu: La société canadienne en débats

Alain Faure and Robert GriffithLa société canadienne en débats :  What holds Canada together? Paris :  l’Harmattan, 2008, 224 pp. 20.90 € (2296059309)

Cette collection de chapitres rédigés par treize auteurs est le fruit d’une série de conférences tenue par des géographes français sur l’« impensé » de l’unité canadienne.  La question qui figure en sous-titre de cet ouvrage, « What holds Canada together? » reçoit plusieurs réponses, qui toutes s’articulent autour de la pluralité des forces qui contribuent à l’unité canadienne.  Une unité certes mythique et instable, mais construite sur des bases étonnamment pérennes : cycles politiques, culturels et géographiques récurrents, équilibres plus ou moins calculés entre groupes linguistiques majeurs, inclusion sinon réussie du moins promises aux nouveaux arrivants et groupes minoritaires, et politiques sociales égalitaires mais disputées. Lire plus

Monday, December 20, 2010

Compte rendu: Les Assistés sociaux

Michel MessuLes Assistés sociaux, suivi de l’Assurance d’assistance. Coll. « Res Socialis ». Fribourg : Academic Press Fribourg, 2010, 283 pp. 36,00 € (978-8271-1057-5)

Gageons que la dernière publication de Michel Messu, professeur de sociologie à l’université de Nantes et spécialiste des politiques publiques sociales, ne passera pas inaperçue dans le champ de l’assistance sociale. L’ouvrage est composé de deux parties distinctes : l'une issue de sa recherche doctorale et déjà publiée 1991, Les Assistés sociaux, et l'autre inédite, intitulée L’Assurance d’assistance, dans laquelle il critique la vision française « enchantée » de l’histoire de l’assistance sociale et défend la thèse du renforcement continu de l’État social depuis 1945. Contrairement aux discours pessimistes sur le déclin irrémédiable de l’État-providence, récurrents depuis la fin des années 1980, la protection accordée aux personnes assistées sociales serait, selon Messu, bien plus développée qu’il y a deux décennies … Lire plus

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Compte rendu: La politique de la stupéfaction

Nicolas Carrier (2008), La politique de la stupéfaction. Pérennité de la prohibition des drogues, coll. « Le sens social », Rennes : Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 376 p., 19,00 €, ISBN 978-2-7535-0591-9

Proposer « une théorie du droit qui soit en mesure d’interpréter la pérennité de la prohibition des drogues, cela en considérant le droit pénal tant au plan de son autonomie que de celui de ses rapports de dépendance avec des formes, des logiques, des jeux de langage distincts et du juridique et du droit. » Cette formule (p. 132) dit bien l’ambition de l’ouvrage. Celui-ci est le fruit de deux démarches complémentaires. D’une part, un vaste inventaire des concepts et modèles théoriques susceptibles d’être mobilisés dans cette interprétation,  Lire plus