Showing papers on "Social change published in 1999"

Social Theory of International Politics

Abstract: Drawing upon philosophy and social theory, Social Theory of International Politics develops a theory of the international system as a social construction. Alexander Wendt clarifies the central claims of the constructivist approach, presenting a structural and idealist worldview which contrasts with the individualism and materialism which underpins much mainstream international relations theory. He builds a cultural theory of international politics, which takes whether states view each other as enemies, rivals or friends as a fundamental determinant. Wendt characterises these roles as 'cultures of anarchy', described as Hobbesian, Lockean and Kantian respectively. These cultures are shared ideas which help shape state interests and capabilities, and generate tendencies in the international system. The book describes four factors which can drive structural change from one culture to another - interdependence, common fate, homogenization, and self-restraint - and examines the effects of capitalism and democracy in the emergence of a Kantian culture in the West.

Social Movements: An Introduction

Abstract: Preface to the second edition. 1. The Study of Social Movements: Recurring Questions, (Partially) Changing Answers. 1.1. Four Core Questions for Social Movement Analysis. 1.1.1. Is social change creating the conditions for the emergence of new movements? 1.1.2. How do we define issues as worthy objects, and actors as worthy subjects of collective action? 1.1.3. How is collective action possible? 1.1.4. What determines the forms and intensity of collective action? 1.1.5. Are these questions specific of social movement analysis? 1.2. What is Distinctive of Social Movements? 1.2.1. The concept of social movement. 1.2.2. Conflictual and consensual collective action. 1.2.3. Social movements, events, and coalitions. 1.2.4. Social movements and organizational processes. 1.2.5. Social movements and protest. 1.3. On This Book. 2. Social Changes and Social Movements. 2.1 Social Structure, Political Cleavages and Collective Action. 2.1.1 Economic change, social fragmentation and movements. 2.1.2. Economic globalization and social conflict. 2.2 States, markets, and social movements. 2.2.1. Territorial boundaries and social conflicts: the transnationalization of protest. 2.2.2. State and classes: the conflicts around the welfare state. 2.3 Knowledge, Culture and Conflicts. 2.3.1. Shifting boundaries between the public and the private: 2.3.2. Cultures and countercultures. 2.3.3. Between the global and the local. 2.4. Structural Transformations, New Conflicts, New Classes. 2.4.1. Still classes? 2.4.2. New middle classes for new social movements? 2.5 Summary. 3. The Symbolic Dimension of Collective Action. 3.1. Culture and Action: The Role of Values. 3.2. Culture and Action: The Cognitive Perspective. 3.2.1. Collective action as cognitive praxis. 3.2.2. Interpretative frames and ideology. 3.2.3. Sense making activities: linking values and frames. 3.3. Problems and Responses. 3.4. Summary. 4. Collective Action and Identity. 4.1 How Does Identity Work? 4.2 Multiple Identities. 4.3 Does Identity Facilitate Participation? 4.4 How Is Identity Generated and Reproduced? 4.4.1 Self- and hetero-definitions of identity. 4.4.2 Production of identity: symbols, practices, rituals. 4.4.3 Identity and the political process. 4.5 Summary. 5. Individuals, networks, and participation. 5.1. Why do People Get Involved in Collective Action? The Role of Networks. 5.2. Do Networks Always Matter? 5.3. Individuals and Organizations. 5.3.1 Exclusive affiliations. 5.3.2. Multiple affiliations. 5.4. Individual participation, movement subcultures, and virtual networks. 5.5 Summary. 6. Social Movements and Organizations. 6.1. Organizational Dilemmas in Social Movements. 6.1.1. Mobilizing people or resources? 6.1.2. Hierarchical or horizontal structures? 6.1.3. Challengers or 'service providers'? 6.2. Types of social movement organizations. 6.2.1. Professional movement organizations. 6.2.2. Participatory movement organizations. 6.3. How do social movement organizations change? 6.3.1. Patterns of change. 6.3.2. Institutional factors and organizational change. 6.3.3. Organizational cultures and organizational change. 6.3.4. Modernization, technological innovation, and organizational change. 6.4. From movement organizations to social movement networks. 6.5 Summary. 7. Action Forms, Repertoires and Cycles of Protest. 7.1 Protest: A Definition. 7.2 Repertoires of Action. 7.3. The Logics and Forms of Protest. 7.3.1 The logic of numbers. 7.3.2 The logic of damage. 7.3.3 The logic of bearing witness. 7.4 Strategic Options and Protest. 7.5 Factors Influencing Repertoire Choice. 7.6 The Cross-national Diffusion of Protest. 7.7. Cycles of Protest, Protest Wave and Protest Campaigns. 7.8. Summary. 8. The Policing of Protest and Political Opportunities for Social Movements. 8.1 The Policing of Protest. 8.2. Political Institutions and Social Movements. 8.3. Prevailing Strategies and Social Movements. 8.4. Allies, Opponents and Social Movements. 8.4.1. Social movements in a multiorganizational field. 8.4.2. Social movements and parties. 8.5. Discursive Opportunity and the Media System. 8.5.1. Discursive opportunities. 8.5.2. Media and movements. 8.6 Summary. 9. Social Movements and Democracy. 9.1 Social Movement Strategies and Their Effects. 9.2 Changes in Public Policy. 9.3 Social Movements and Procedural Changes. 9.4. Social Movement and Democratic Theory. 9.5. Social movements and democratization. 9.6 Summary. References. Index.

Social cognitive theory of gender development and differentiation.

Abstract: Human differentiation on the basis of gender is a fundamental phenomenon that affects virtually every aspect of people's daily lives. This article presents the social cognitive theory of gender role development and functioning. It specifies how gender conceptions are constructed from the complex mix of experiences and how they operate in concert with motivational and self-regulatory mechanisms to guide gender-linked conduct throughout the life course. The theory integrates psychological and sociostructural determinants within a unified conceptual structure. In this theoretical perspective, gender conceptions and roles are the product of a broad network of social influences operating interdependently in a variety of societal subsystems. Human evolution provides bodily structures and biological potentialities that permit a range of possibilities rather than dictate a fixed type of gender differentiation. People contribute to their self-development and bring about social changes that define and structure gender relationships through their agentic actions within the interrelated systems of influence.

Social networks and status attainment

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This essay traces the development of the research enterprise, known as the social resources theory, which formulated and tested a number of propositions concerning the relationships between embedded resources in social networks and socioeconomic attainment. This enterprise, seen in the light of social capital, has accumulated a substantial body of research literature and supported the proposition that social capital, in terms of both access and mobilization of embedded resources, enhances the chances of attaining better statuses. Further, social capital is contingent on initial positions in the social hierarchies as well as on extensity of social ties. The essay concludes with a discussion of remaining critical issues and future research directions for this research enterprise.

The Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements

Abstract: Protest has become an everyday part of modern societies, one of the few recognized outlets for voicing and discussing basic moral commitments. Protest movements shape our thinking about social change and human agency. At a time when schools, the media, and even religious institutions offer little guidance for our moral judgments, protest movements have become a central source for providing us with ethical visions and creative ideas. In this book, James Jasper integrates diverse examples of protest, from 19th-century boycotts to recent anti-nuclear, animal-rights, and environmental movements, into an understanding of how social movements operate. He highlights their creativity, not only in forging new morals but in adopting courses of action and inventing organizational forms. The work stresses the role of individuals, both as lone protesters and as key decision-makers, and it emphasizes the open-ended nature of strategic choices as protesters, their opponents, their allies, and the government respond to each other's actions. The book also synthesizes the many concepts developed in recent years as part of the cultural approach to social movements, placing them in context and showing what they mean for other scholarly traditions. Drawing on lengthy interviews, historical materials, surveys, and his own participation in protests, Jasper offers a systematic overview of the field of social movements. He weaves together accounts of large-scale movements with individual biographies, placing the movements in cultural perspective and focusing on individuals' experiences.

The development of children ages 6 to 14.

Abstract: The years between 6 and 14—middle childhood and early adolescence—are a time of important developmental advances that establish children’s sense of identity. During these years, children make strides toward adulthood by becoming competent, independent, self-aware, and involved in the world beyond their families. Biological and cognitive changes transform children’s bodies and minds. Social relationships and roles change dramatically as children enter school, join programs, and become involved with peers and adults outside their families. During middle childhood, children develop a sense of self-esteem and individuality, comparing themselves with their peers. They come to expect they will succeed or fail at different tasks. They may develop an orientation toward achievement that will color their response to school and other challenges for many years. In early adolescence, the tumultuous physical and social changes that accompany puberty, the desire for autonomy and distance from the family, and the transition from elementary school to middle school or junior high can all cause problems for young people. When adolescents are in settings (in school, at home, or in community programs) that are not attuned to their needs and emerging independence, they can lose confidence in themselves and slip into negative behavior patterns such as truancy and school dropout. This article examines the developmental changes that characterize the years from 6 to 14, and it highlights ways in which the organization of programs, schools, and family life can better support positive outcomes for youths.

Paradoxes of Participation: Questioning Participatory Approaches to Development

Abstract: This article suggests that the concepts underlying participatory approaches to development should be subject to greater critical analysis. Drawing on research on water resource management in sub-Saharan Africa, and on social theory concerning the recursive relationship between agency and structure, it illustrates the need for a more complex understanding of issues of eAciency and empowerment in participatory appro- aches. Particularly, two key concepts are examined: ideas about the nature and role of institutions; and models of individual action. The article concludes by identifying the questions such an analysis raises about the relationships between community, social capital and the state. Copyright # 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1 PARTICIPATION IN DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE Heroic claims are made for participatory approaches to development, these being justified in the terms of ensuring greater eAciency and eAectiveness of investment and of contributing to processes of democratization and empowerment. The conundrum of ensuring the sustainability of development interventions is assumed to be solvable by the proper involvement of beneficiaries in the supply and management of resources, services and facilities. However, despite significant claims to the contrary there is little evidence of the long-term eAectiveness of participation in materially improving the conditions of the most vulnerable people or as a strategy for social change. Whilst the evidence for eAciency receives some support on a small scale, the evidence regarding empower- ment and sustainability is more partial, tenuous and reliant on assertions of the rightness of the approach and process rather than convincing proof of outcomes. Participation has therefore become an act of faith in development; something we believe in and rarely question. This act of faith is based on three main tenets; that

Entertainment-Education: A Communication Strategy for Social Change

Abstract: Entertainment-education is the process of designing and implementing media messages to entertain and educate for the purposes of increasing an audiences knowledge about educational issues creating favorable attitudes and changing overt behavior. This book chronicles the origins of entertainment-education in current times documenting applications of the strategy around the globe. It serves as a resource for people concerned with the communication process offering a comprehensive discussion of the entertainment-education strategy and establishes a foundation on which to base further study and application. Major figures events and turning points in the evolution of the entertainment-education strategy are presented; theories and concepts explaining the effectiveness of implementing this strategy are documented. In addition research methodologies for studying the effects of such programs are provided and the lessons learned in utilizing such an approach are summarized. In order to present a balanced perspective of the approach its limitations are identified and the ethical problems that may accompany efforts to bring about social change are considered.

The social environment and health: a discussion of the epidemiologic literature.

Abstract: The environment can be thought of in terms of physical and social dimensions. The social environment includes the groups to which we belong, the neighborhoods in which we live, the organization of our workplaces, and the policies we create to order our lives. There have been recent reports in the literature that the social environment is associated with disease and mortality risks, independent of individual risk factors. These findings suggest that the social environment influences disease pathways. Yet much remains to be learned about the social environment, including how to understand, define, and measure it. The research that needs to be done could benefit from a long tradition in sociology and sociological research that has examined the urban environment, social areas, social disorganization, and social control. We summarize this sociological literature and discuss its relevance to epidemiologic research.

Advocating feminism: The Latin American Feminist NGO 'Boom'

Abstract: Latin American feminist NGOs have played a critical role in 'advocating feminism' by advancing a progressive policy agenda while simultaneously articulating vital linkages among larger women's movement and civil society constituencies. However, three recent developments potentially undermine NGOs' ability to promote feminist-inspired policies and social change. First, States and inter-governmental organizations (IGOs) increasingly have turned to feminist NGOs as gender experts rather than as citizens' groups advocating on behalf of women's rights. Second, neoliberal States and IGOs often view NGOs as surrogates for civil society , assuming they serve as 'intermediaries' to larger societal constituencies. And third, States increasingly subcontract feminist NGOs to advise on or execute government women's programs. Possible strategies for rearticulating the movement-activist and technical-professional faces of NGOs in the region are explored in conclusion.

Peer relationships and social competence during early and middle childhood.

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This review demarcates major periods of empirical activity and accomplishment (i.e. “generations”) in research on children's peer relations and social competence during recent decades and identifies the investigative agendas that were dominant or ascendant during these periods. A sampling of studies that were conducted during the most recent generation of peer relations research is organized and reviewed in relation to two types of research objectives: (a) enduring agendas—aims from past research generations that have continued to serve as an impetus for empirical investigation during the 1990s—and (b) innovative agendas—newly emergent objectives that are predicated on novel conceptual issues or ongoing research controversies and deficiencies. This profile of continuity and change in investigators' research agendas provides a platform for delineating and analyzing recent empirical accomplishments in the field of peer relations research.

The Possibility of Social Choice

Abstract: The subject of social choice includes within its capacious frame various problems with the common feature of relating social judgments and group decisions to the views and interests of the individuals who make up the society or the group. Some challenges and foundational problems faced by social choice theory as a discipline are discussed. Social choice theory is a subject in which formal and mathematical techniques have been very extensively used. Voting-based procedures are entirely natural for some kinds of social choice problems, such as elections, referendums, or committee decisions. They are, however, altogether unsuitable for many other problems of social choice. Impossibility results in social choice theory - led by the pioneering work of Arrow (1951) - have often been interpreted as being thoroughly destructive of the possibility of reasoned and democratic social choice, including welfare economics. That view is argued against.

Social Capital and Community Effects on Population and Individual Health

Abstract: Social capital refers to those features of social relationships--such as levels of interpersonal trust and norms of reciprocity and mutual aid--that facilitate collective action for mutual benefit. Social capital is believed to play an important role in the functioning of community life across a variety of domains, ranging from the prevention of juvenile delinquency and crime, the promotion of successful youth development, and the enhancement of schooling and education to the encouragement of political participation. More recently, researchers have begun to apply the concept to explain variations in health status across geographic localities. In preliminary analyses, the higher the stocks of social capital (as indicated by measures of trust and reciprocity in social surveys), the higher appear to be the health achievement of a given area. Strengthening the social capital within communities may provide an important avenue for reducing socioeconomic disparities in health.

The Developmental State Is Dead—Long Live Social Capital?

Abstract: At the same time that the World Bank appears to be going through a process of replacing the Washington consensus with the Post-Washington consensus, the notion of social capital is coming to the fore both in development studies and social science more generally. These developments are closely connected to one another analytically: they are liable to stake out a new development agenda based on new Keynesianism and social capital in place of state versus the market; and they reflect more generally the growing influence of mainstream economics over other social sciences.

Neighborhood Social Environment and Risk of Death: Multilevel Evidence from the Alameda County Study

Abstract: Recent reports suggest the importance of associations between residential area characteristics and health status, but most research uses only census data to measure these characteristics. The current research examined the effect of overall neighborhood social environment on 11-year risk of death. On the basis of data, the authors developed a three-component neighborhood social environment scale: 1) commercial stores; 2) population socioeconomic status; and 3) environment/housing. Data from the 1983 wave of the Alameda County Study (n = 1,129) and deaths over 11 years were analyzed with two-level logistic regression models. Age- and sex-adjusted risk of death was higher for residents in low social environment neighborhoods (odds ratio = 1.58, 95% confidence interval 1.15-2.18). Mortality risks were significantly higher in neighborhoods with a low social environment, even after account was taken of individual income level, education, race/ethnicity, perceived health status, smoking status, body mass index, and alcohol consumption. When each component of the neighborhood social environment characteristics score was examined separately, each was found to be associated with higher risk for mortality, independent of individual risk factors. These findings demonstrate the role of area characteristics as a health risk factor and point to the need for more focused attention to the meaning and measurement of neighborhood quality.

Developmental Health and the Wealth of Nations: Social, Biological, and Educational Dynamics.

Abstract: Foreword, Mustard, Lipsitt. Modernity's Paradox, Keating, Hertzman. Part I. The Gradient Effect in Developmental Health. Population Health and Human Development, Hertzman. Health, Well-Being, and Coping Skills, Power, Hertzman. When Children's Social Development Fails, Tremblay. Quality and Inequality in in Children's Literacy: The Effects of Families, Schools, and Comminities, Willms. Are Socioeconomic Gradients for Children Similar to Those for Adults?: Achievement and ealth of Children in the United States, Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Britto. Socioeconimic Gradients in Mathematical Ability and Their Responsivesness to Intervention during Early Childhood, Case, Griffin, Kelly. Part II. Fundamental Processes: Biology and Development. Mechanisms of Brain Development: Neuronal Sculpting by the Physical and Social Environment, Cynader, Frost. Developmental Trajectories, Early Experiences, and Community Consequences: Lessons from Studies with Rhesus Monkeys, Suomi. Psychosocial Factors and Psychoneuroimmunology within a Lifespan Perspective, Coe. Individual Pathways in Competence and Coping: From Regulatory Systems to Habits of Mind, Keating, Miller. Part III. Human Development and Learning Society. The Learning Society: A Human Development Agenda, Keatinn. Social Software for a Learning Society: Relating School and Work, Rohlen. Schools is Knowledge-Building Organizations, Scardamalia. Part IV. The Ecology of Child Development: Lessons for a Learning Society. Lowering the Burden of Suffering: Monitoring the Benefits of Clinical, Targeted, and Universal Approaches, Offord, Kraemer, Kazdin, Jensen, Harrington, Gardner. Bouchard, Community as a Participative Learning Environment: The Case of Centraide of Greater Montreal 1, 2, 3, GO! Project. Pence, "It Takes a Village...," and the New Roads to Get There. Keating, Developmental Health as the Wealth of Nations.

Depression, negative symptoms, social stagnation and social decline in the early course of schizophrenia.

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate when social consequences in schizophrenia emerge, and what conditions give rise to the social disadvantage evident in people suffering from schizophrenia. METHOD: Early course in schizophrenia was studied in a population-based sample of 232 first illness-episode cases retrospectively from onset to first admission, and in a representative subsample of 115 patients prospectively at six cross-sections over a period of 5 years. Data on non-specific and negative symptomatology and social development was compared with data from an age- and sex-matched control group drawn from the normal population. RESULTS: In total, 73% of the patients showed a prodromal phase of several years. First signs were depressive and negative symptoms. In 57% of cases social disability emerged 2 to 4 years before first admission. Social consequences depended on the level of social development at onset. An early onset involved social stagnation, and a late onset was associated with social decline. Men's poorer social outcome was determined by their lower level of social development at onset and socially adverse illness behaviour. The 5-year symptom-related course showed no gender difference. At 81% the lifetime prevalence of depressive mood until first admission was several times higher in schizophrenics than in healthy controls. Early depression predicted a lower subsequent score for affective flattening. Suicide indicators were predicted by lack of self-confidence and feelings of guilt early in the illness. CONCLUSION: Taking into account a prodromal phase of several years on average before first hospital admission, early detection, case identification and intervention are urgently needed. The intervention must be targeted at syndromes such as early depression, negative symptoms and certain forms of cognitive and social impairment. Language: en

The Impact of Inclusion on Students With and Without Disabilities and Their Educators

Abstract: This article reviews the literature with respect to inclusion programs and students with and without disabilities and their teachers. The findings of the studies reviewed cited indicate that: (a) the impact of inclusion programs on the academic performance and social development of students with disabilities has been mixed; (b) the placement of students without disabilities in inclusion programs does not appear to interfere with their academic performance and has several social benefits for these students; and (c) teachers' responses to inclusion programs are complex, are shaped by multiple variables, and change over time. The implications of the findings for students and educators involved in inclusion programs as well as the limitations of the studies cited are discussed.

Image Politics: The New Rhetoric of Environmental Activism

Abstract: Preface. Making Waves. Meditation I. The Rhetoric of Social Movements: A Theoretical Diagnostics and Overhaul. Imaging Social Movements. Meditation II. The Possiblities of Nature in a Postmodern Age: The Case of Environemntal Justice Groups. Meditation III. Participatory Democracy in Enemy Territory. Audience, Dissemination, and Contexts: Rereading "War in the Woods". Rhetoric and Social Change in a Postmodern Context.

Breaking the Consensus: lifelong learning as social control

Abstract: This article rejects the powerful consensus in the UK and beyond to the effect that lifelong learning is a wonder drug which, on its own, will solve a wide range of educational, social and political ills. The main features of the consensus are encapsulated in a few central tenets and their influence demonstrated by a few representative quotations. Ten key problems with the consensus are listed and this analysis ¦prompts the question, if the thesis is so poor, why is it so popular? Alternative visions of the learning society and of lifelong learning are then presented, including a sceptical version of lifelong learning as social control, which treats lifelong learning not as a self‐evident good but as contested terrain between employers, unions and the state. Finally, some reflections are offered on possible ways forward. Both the critique of the dominant consensus and the suggestions for policy have been shaped by the Economic and Social Research Council's Learning Society Programme and by the fi...

Black Students on White Campuses: 20 Years of Research.

Abstract: From the 1960s to 1980s people in the United States have witnessed a broad sweep of social change in the country With issues pertaining to Blacks, people have seen a complex mixture of overt repression, social consciousness, legal changes, backlash, assassinations, political interest, disinterest, and neglect Higher education has gone about its business during this turbulence There are many ways in which student affairs professionals might try to understand what Black students have experienced during the last 20 years The purpose of this article is to examine this period through student affairs research on Black undergraduate students at White institutions Such an article accomplishes several purposes First, it allows for a focus on an area in which Black students have had to deal directly with a system largely run by Whites for Whites (Sedlacek & Brooks, 1976) Second, it allows one to step back and get a perspective on where student affairs has been and where it to be going Third, it puts an emphasis on empirical research rather than commentary, wishful thinking, or frustration An index of the maturity of the student personnel profession may be found in its success in providing systematic knowledge on which to base its development The May 1986 issue of the Journal of College Student Personnel, with articles by Brown, Cheatham, and Taylor, provided a lively discussion of how student affairs professionals can learn about Black students on White campuses Should student affairs professionals go to the literature and see what the research says (Brown, 1986; Cheatham,

Influence of time on social preferences: implications for life-span development.

Abstract: Socioemotional selectivity theory holds that the reliable decline in social contact in later life is due, in part, to older people's preferences for emotionally meaningful social partners and that such preferences are due not to age, per se, but to perceived limitations on time. Confirming the theory, in both the United States and Hong Kong, older people showed a preference for familiar social partners, whereas younger people did not show this preference. However, when asked to imagine an expansive future, older people's bias for familiar social partners disappeared. Conversely, in the face of a hypothesized constraint on time, both younger and older people preferred familiar social partners. Moreover, social preferences in Hong Kong differed before and after the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China, which was construed as a sociopolitical time constraint. One year prior to the handover, only older people displayed preferences for familiar partners. Two months before the handover, both age groups showed such preferences. One year after the handover, once again, only older Hong Kong people preferred familiar social partners.

The social world of children learning to talk

Abstract: This fascinating companion to the award-winning Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children reveals how daily child-parent social interactions govern children's language and social development.Based on unparalled data from 2-1/2 years of observing the everyday interactions of 1- and 2-year-old children learning to talk in their own homes, Hart and Risley have charted the month-by-month growth of the children's vocabulary, utterances, and use of grammatical structures. The compelling narrative highlights reliability-tested research findings and is supplemented with numerous transcripts from observations and a list of 2,000 words of children's expressive vocabulary from 19-36 months of age.This book is must-reading for professionals in speech and language, child development, psychology, and education who need to understand how children come to talk as much and as well as their parents and caregivers.Learn more about Hart and Risley's unparalleled study which shows the importance of talking often to young children in their companion book, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children.

Income inequality, social cohesion, and class relations: a critique of Wilkinson's neo-Durkheimian research program.

Abstract: Wilkinson's "income inequality and social cohesion" model has emerged as a leading research program in social epidemiology. Public health scholars and activists working toward the elimination of social inequalities in health can find several appealing features in Wilkinson's research. In particular, it provides a sociological alternative to former models that emphasize poverty, health behaviors, or the cultural aspects of social relations as determinants of population health. Wilkinson's model calls for social explanations, avoids the subjectivist legacy of U.S. functionalist sociology that is evident in "status" approaches to understanding social inequalities in health, and calls for broad policies of income redistribution. Nevertheless, Wilkinson's research program has characteristics that limit its explanatory power and its ability to inform social policies directed toward reducing social inequalities in health. The model ignores class relations, an approach that might help explain how income inequalities are generated and account for both relative and absolute deprivation. Furthermore, Wilkinson's model implies that social cohesion rather than political change is the major determinant of population health. Historical evidence suggests that class formation could determine both reductions in social inequalities and increases in social cohesion. Drawing on recent examples, the authors argue that an emphasis on social cohesion can be used to render communities responsible for their mortality and morbidity rates: a community-level version of "blaming the victim." Such use of social cohesion is related to current policy initiatives in the United States and Britain under the New Democrat and New Labor governments.