Expanding the gerontological imagination on ethnicity: conceptual and theoretical perspectives

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 935-960 ◽  
Author(s):  
SANDRA TORRES
Keyword(s):  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Western World ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Gerontological Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ageing Populations

ABSTRACTThe globalisation of international migration has increased the ethnic diversity of most ageing populations across the Western world. This has implications for gerontological research, policy and practice, and puts our understandings of ethnicity to the test. This paper presents the different perspectives that inform ethnicity scholarship (the essentialist/primordial perspective, the structuralist/circumstantialist perspective and social constructionism) and suggests that the way in which we regard ethnicity has implications for how gerontological research is designed, how policies for old age are formulated and how gerontological practice is shaped. Through a review of contemporary gerontological research on ethnicity published in some of gerontology's main journals, the paper discusses some of the trends observed and concludes that most research seems to be informed by essentialism and structuralism. This suggests that the gerontological imagination on ethnicity has yet to be informed by the latest developments in ethnicity scholarship. The paper therefore urges gerontologists to broaden their understanding of ethnicity and suggests that much could be gained if we were to let the social constructionist perspective on ethnicity and the notion of intersectionality be sources of inspiration for the gerontological imagination on ethnicity.

scholarly journals THE JOURNAL OF GERONTOLOGY: SOCIAL SCIENCES: GLOBAL SCHOLARSHIP CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S195-S196
Author(s):  
Deborah Carr
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Gerontological Research ◽  
Parallel Data ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Cross National

Abstract Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences aims to publish the highest quality social scientific research on aging and the life course in the U.S. and worldwide. The disciplinary scope is broad, encompassing scholarship from demography, economics, psychology, public health, and sociology. A key substantive focus is identifying the social, economic, and cultural contexts that shape aging experiences worldwide. In the coming decade, social gerontology research is poised to present many opportunities for cross-national and cross-cultural scholarship – driven in part by the proliferation of large parallel data sets from many nations in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. I will discuss the role that peer-reviewed cross-national scholarship can play in disseminating knowledge that informs gerontological research, policy, and practice internationally. I will also identify under-researched areas that will be of great interest to scholars in the coming decade, including LGBT older adults, aging in the Global South, reconfigured families, and centenarians.

Instrumental Understanding of Management Ideas

2019 ◽  
pp. 120-138
Author(s):  
Kjell-Arne Røvik
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Implementation Phase ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
Distinct Property ◽  
Symbolic Perspective ◽  
As If

This chapter discusses the instrumental status of management ideas through the lenses of three theoretical perspectives. While from the modernistic–rationalistic perspective, management ideas are conceived of as tools, they are also frequently described as legitimizing elements or fashions viewed from the social constructionist–symbolic perspective. However, seen from a pragmatic perspective—this chapter’s main analytical frame—the instrumental quality of a management idea cannot be decided upon a priori, as if it were a distinct property of each idea. Instead, the implementation phase stands out as critical for the shaping of management ideas. A pragmatic lens, such as offered by translation theory, helps to identify a range of possible trajectories of initiatives to implement management ideas. Some lead to instrumentalization and practical use, while others do not. It is argued that translation theory has the potential to guide practitioners’ efforts to instrumentalize management ideas.

Evaluating Social Work: Progress and Prospects

1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliet Cheetham
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Evaluative Research ◽  
Evidence Of Impact

Within the past decade, evaluative research has achieved an established and well-regarded place within the repertoire of social work inquiry. Although increasingly wide-ranging and methodologically sophisticated, social work evaluation still has to contend with important challenges. These include taking greater account of the several audiences of research, namely, service users, practitioners, and policy makers; developing, through a variety of research methods, the range and quality of evidence of impact; and drawing research, policy, and practice into closer union. To reach its full potential, social work research must focus both on individuals and their social worlds and must therefore be firmly rooted in the social sciences.

scholarly journals LEGAL DISCOURSE IN THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST PARADIGM (construction of interethnic relations)

2016 ◽  
pp. 117-123
Author(s):  
T. V. Dubrovskaya
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Discursive Practice ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Interethnic Relations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Object Of Study

The paper presents some results of the research that is aimed at revealing the mechanisms of discursive construction of international and interethnic relations in different types of discourse. The object of study in this fragment is the legal discourse, which is viewed within the paradigm of social constructionism. The author consolidates studies of law as discursive practice and outlines an appropriate methodological perspective, which presupposes the interpretation of legal discourse in social and axiological context, participation of society in legal-discursive practices, and the essential role of legal discourse in power relations. To perform the analysis of the ‘Strategy of State national policy of the Russian Federation’, the author applies the categories of social actor, implicature, specifying and vagueness, which are typically exploited in Critical Discourse Analysis. The results demonstrate that the document in question categorises the participants in interethnic relations and constructs a few pairs of interacting parties. The state is represented as a key actor in interethnic relations. The document also operates the discursively opposite mechanisms of specifying and vagueness to problematise certain aspects of the relations. Axiologically laden abstract categories and implicature also construct interethnic relations.

scholarly journals Market Participation Variables in Commercializing South African Smallholder Farmers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Nwafor
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Herd Size ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Market Participation ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
The Social ◽  
Additional Income

The study examined key socio-economic characteristics of smallholder farmers identified for their contribution to market participation. These variables include gender, age, marital status, level of education, household size, additional income, membership of cooperative, herd size and use of ICTs. Using a structured questionnaire, primary data was collected from a total of 129 respondents which was analysed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, and presented using cross-tabulations, percentages and count data. The result indicates that age, additional income, cooperative membership and use of ICTs were important variables which contributed to market participation among respondents. The study also made applicable recommendations as the findings may have relevance for future research, policy and practice for commercializing smallholder farmers.

scholarly journals Employment, environmental pollution and working class life in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanesa Castán Broto
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
The Social

People's experiences of a polluted space are intimately linked with their relative concerns for quality of life and livelihoods. Thus quality of environment and security of employment are two closely related issues in social conflicts over environmental pollution. Rather than being implicated in a trade-off relationship, environmental quality and job provision are both part of the life of community residents. Bringing together the literature on the political ecology of environmental conflicts and the social constructionist literature on public perceptions of environmental risks, this article argues that the working class and disadvantaged sections of society are often confronted with alliances between the industry, institutions and other stakeholders which may serve to legitimate a particular configuration of things in which the appropriation of some resources by the industry is regarded as legitimate. However, these arrangements are unstable: they are subject to constant renegotiation between the social groups implicated. Thus, how the emergence of concerns about the local environment relates to preoccupations about the state of the local economy is related to a process whereby these relationships are constructed and re-negotiated. These questions are analyzed using a case study of environmental pollution from coal-energy production in the city of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The case shows that both concerns for the environment and unemployment are articulated simultaneously in the context of industrial pollution, together with the redefinition of the socio-economic landscapes of post-industrial Tuzla.Keywords: Environmental pollution, employment, working-class life, social constructionism, Bosnia and Herzegovina

scholarly journals Why Increased Focus on Aging With Disability Matters to Gerontology Research, Policy, and Practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 643-644
Author(s):  
Margaret Campbell ◽  
Matthew Janicki
Keyword(s):  
Research Policy ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Mobility Impairments ◽  
Gerontological Research ◽  
Cord Injury ◽  
Changing Demographics ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Improve Health

Abstract This symposium elaborates on the theme of the 2020 conference, “Why Age Matters”, to include aging with disability. We ask: “can an increased focus on aging with disability within gerontological research, policy, and practice advance our knowledge of disablement across the life cycle and improve our design and implementation of health and social service interventions’? Five experts will address this from differing perspectives (including gerontology and rehabilitation). One presentation draws on national/ regional data to illustrate the changing demographics of aging and disability and highlights the health consequences of aging with- and aging into, long-term physical disabilities. A second uses data from a mixed methods study to demonstrate the unique challenges experienced by adults aging with spinal cord injury with a focus on the impact of specific environmental barriers and facilitators to maintain health and participation in social roles. A third covers three reports on data from a scoping review to document the exclusion of middle-aged and older adults with disabilities from behavioral clinical trials and describes how translational research strategies can be used to help close this gap. A fourth presents examples of how technologies, such as videoconferencing and voice activation, are being used to deliver and enhance existing EB interventions to improve health, physical activity, and participation for individuals aging with mobility impairments. The last one draws on research and scholarly work from both gerontology and rehabilitation to highlight the co-occurring issues of ageism and ableism and describes how reducing ableism is central to successfully reframing aging. Lifelong Disabilities Interest Group Sponsored Symposium.

scholarly journals CHOT STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S415-S415
Author(s):  
Neeraj Puro
Keyword(s):  
Research Policy ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Senior Student ◽  
Doctoral Candidate ◽  
The Social ◽  
Doctoral Work

Abstract As the Senior Student Representative for the Social Research, Policy, and Practice Section for GSA one of the goals is to organize a symposium that would be beneficial for students and junior researchers. In this section, we will have a student who was involved in CHOT to speak about his experience. Neeraj Puro is a doctoral candidate who has been involved in several CHOT projects during his academic career. The CHOT has helped fund his doctoral work and allowed him to travel and present at more conferences. The projects that he was involved in helped him with early publications and assisted when he was out in the career market. He will speak about his experience; what he learned, and his opinion about the process. He will reflect on this program from a student/junior researcher’s perspective and how it has influenced his doctoral journey and the beginning of his career.

Expanding the Vision of the Social Constructionist Debates: Creating Relevance for Practitioners

1995 ◽  
Vol 76 (7) ◽  
pp. 395-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Science Methods ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Social Science Methods ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practice Models ◽  
Social Work Practitioners

The term social constructionism has been associated with the research debates among academic social workers. Recently Atherton offered an analysis of the research debates in an attempt to communicate the significance of these debates to social work practitioners. He argued that these debates are tearing the profession apart. A major limitation of Atherton's analysis is that it failed to provide relevance for practitioners by making connections between underlying themes of the debates and important parallel developments within clinical practice fields. The author offers a different interpretation of the research debates, viewing them as a metadebate about science and social science methods. Drawing distinctions between social constructionism and constructivism expands Atherton's discussion, defining their relationship to both research and practice. Examples from practice models are used to illustrate how constructionism and constructivism are significant concepts and are being used across disciplines as metatheories for practice.

scholarly journals PROMOTING AGING IN PLACE VIA RESEARCH, POLICY, AND PRACTICE IN AGE-FRIENDLY COMMUNITIES

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S26-S26
Author(s):  
Kathy Black
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Aging In Place ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Professional Groups ◽  
Age In Place ◽  
Community Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Global Age

Abstract The majority of Americans overwhelmingly prefer to age in place and in the communities in which they reside. Age-friendly communities support aging in place by focusing attention on features both inside and outside of the home. The global age-friendly community model provides a framework that requires assessing community-based older adults’ needs and preferences about, and developing subsequent action towards, features of the social, service and built environment including housing and transportation which are considered essential to aging successfully at home. This presentation discusses the intersect between research, policy and practice in an age-friendly community which utilized micro-level findings from older adults (n = 1, 172) to enact macro-level collaborations across local and statewide government and professional groups to facilitate aging in place across the domains of housing and transportation.

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